tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4092277126297028912024-03-06T15:00:57.814-05:00Freedom's PhilosopherThis blog will explore the philosophical and and moral implications of libertarianism.Freedom's Philosopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15412573018531100508noreply@blogger.comBlogger219125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-409227712629702891.post-82626623056821671052023-01-28T08:16:00.025-05:002023-02-01T06:24:34.408-05:00Human Warfare: The Universality and Persistence of Biology and Culture <p> By: Ronald F. White, Ph.D.</p><p> Professor Emeritus, Mount St. Joseph University </p><p><a href="https://freedomsphilosopher.blogspot.com/2022/05/introduction-to-philosophy-of-culture.html">Part I. Introduction to the Philosophy of Culture and Human Warfare </a> </p><p><a href="https://freedomsphilosopher.blogspot.com/2022/09/putins-invasion-of-ukraine.html">Part II. War Leadership: Vladimir Putin's Leadership in the Context of Russia's Bombing of Ukraine.</a> <a href="https://freedomsphilosopher.blogspot.com/2023/01/the-nature-and-nurture-of-human-warfare.html">Part III. The Nature and Nurture of Human Warfare: An Evolutionary Account </a></p><p><br /></p>Freedom's Philosopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15412573018531100508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-409227712629702891.post-4860103480778188872023-01-27T08:37:00.000-05:002023-01-27T08:37:21.740-05:00<p> 1. Walk Don't Run (Am)</p><p>2. Surf Rider Am)</p><p>3. Telstar (A)</p><p>4. Diamondhead (Am)</p><p>5. Tequila (E)</p><p>6. Penetration (F#m)</p><p>7. Apache (Am)</p><p>8. Sleepwalk (C)</p><p>9. Rockin and Surfin (E)</p><p>10. Wild Weekend (G)</p><p>11. The Last Date (C)</p><p>12. Miserlou (E)</p><p>13. Secret Agent Man </p><p>14. War of the Satellites (Am)</p><p>15. Ace of Spades (A)</p><p>16. Jack the Ripper</p><p>17. Rumble (E)</p><p>18. Out of Limits (E)</p><p>19. Pipeline (Em)</p><p>20. Wipeout (C)</p>Freedom's Philosopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15412573018531100508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-409227712629702891.post-75386172303656441692023-01-08T07:10:00.166-05:002023-01-27T07:27:55.523-05:00 Part III. The Nature and Nurture of Human Warfare: An Evolutionary Account <div class="post-body entry-content float-container" id="post-body-3524588697540760428" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 1.5em 0px 2em;"><p><span face="Roboto, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><b style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #757575;"> </span>By Ronald F. White, </b></span><span face="Roboto, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Ph.D.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b style="background-color: white;"><span face="Roboto, sans-serif"> Professor </span><span face="Roboto, sans-serif">Emeritus </span></b></span></p><p><span face="Roboto, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><b style="background-color: white;"> Mount St. Joseph University </b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span>In light of the ongoing war in Ukraine, I thought it would be useful to explore the larger questions of how human leadership and human warfare are related; and. whether they are natural behaviors passed on to subsequent generations through our <i>genetic inheritance</i> (biology); or whether those behaviors are learned and therefore passed on over time via <i>teaching and learning</i> (culture). And, in light of those findings, I will speculate whether the quest for localized and/or global peace are realistic sociopolitical goals. But first, let's fill in some of the conceptual framework associated with <i>evolution</i> and <i>warfare.</i> </span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif;"><span> Darwinian evolution has two interrelated mechanisms: variation and selection. Systemic <i>Variation</i> is the product of a <i>replicative mechanism </i>that generates individuals that exhibit different qualities/attributes over time. <i>Selection</i> refers to the processes that determine which variations thrive, survive and/or suffer reduction in the number of replicants and/or ultimate <i>extinction</i>. I like to refer to the evolutionary process as "<i>trial and error</i>." In any given environment (biological or cultural) strong individuals/groups residing in a given environment, tend to survive and weak individuals/groups devolve, unless they adapt to that new environment, or relocate to another environment. Over time, <i>organisms</i> evolve/devolve genetically, in collective <i>biological systems; </i>and <i>beliefs</i> (ideas) evolve/devolve intellectually, within individual minds and/or collective belief systems. W</span>estern philosophers agree that "Human Warfare" is a collective and cooperative activity, involving large groups of human beings. The minds of those individuals are shaped by those collectives. Some collectives are intergenerational and therefore pass on genetic and/or cultural information (<i>misinformation</i> and <i>disinformation</i>) across past, present, and future generations, including account of their feelings, thoughts, and behavior. <i>Cooperative collectives</i>, invariably, entail <i>leadership</i> and <i>followership</i>. There are no leaders without followers and no followers without leaders. Throughout most of human history, leadership/followership has been <i>hierarchical</i> (top-to-bottom) whereby followers submit to the <i>authority</i> of leaders, which (over time) often gets locked into <i>tradition</i>. Followership can be either: <i style="background-color: transparent;">voluntary</i> (free will), <i style="background-color: transparent;">involuntary</i> (coerced), or <i style="background-color: transparent;">nonvoluntary</i>. In the United States, business and politics are still monopolized by white males, although women and racial minorities have recently penetrated that monopoly. Men have always been the primary movers and shakers of human warfare. Why? Some argue that human males are biologically and/or culturally programmed collectivize in pursuit of common goals, compete with other groups of males, and forge lifelong friendships... For example, male participation in violent sports such as football, soccer, and hockey. Males who serve in the military and engage in lethal warfare with high casualties, are especially prone to forge these lifelong friendships, hence the term "<i>band of brothers</i>." This raises recent questions concerning the status of female soldiers, "band of sisters?" and whether women ought to serve alongside men on the front lines? Or whether they should be limited to non-violent support positions. Similarly, should strong, athletic women be able compete for positions in male sports, or must they compete only against other women? Why? Some scholars question whether it is possible for followers to exercise free will, when leaders effectively manipulate information and/or threaten those who are non-compliant. Others argue that sustained leader-follower relationships require a degree of information manipulation and/or coercion, especially political leadership. The forging of multi-national alliances via treaties is an important element of modern warfare. Alliances can be either public (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) or private (secret). Secret alliances between nations (Iran, Korea, Chins?) have always been problematic. </p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif;"> Somit and Peterson argued that there are two polar organizational forms of government <i>Totalitarianism</i> and <i>Democracy </i>and that worldwide, totalitarian regimes vastly outnumber democratic regimes. And that democracy requires a highly educated populace that know the issues at hand and actually vote. Of course, voting can be manipulated by prevailing power structures and ruling parties by limiting the number of polling places, especially in minority neighborhoods, and by requiring multiple forms of identification proving age, residence, and political party. The longer it takes to vote at a polling place, fewer voters can show up, without missing work. And of course, there is always the question of how voters vote, who collects, and counts those votes. Ballot stuffing is often a problem (real or imagined) in democratic elections. Voting technology has evolved significantly from paper ballots to voting machines, to voting machines that produce paper ballots. In recent years, those who win the election, tend to trust the process, while those who lose tend to doubt those results. </p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif;"> Like all human institutions, the history of human warfare reveals varying degrees of cultural <i>evolution</i>, <i>devolution</i>, and/or <i>stability</i> over time. We know that periods of both warlike and peaceful behavior are evident throughout much of human history. Scholars debate over whether warfare and peace are biologically and/or culturally determined. Some anthropologists argue that there is artifactual evidence indicating that groups of Hunters and Gatherers rarely (if ever) engaged in competitive warfare over resources, land, power, or ideology. There was (no doubt) plenty of food for groups of 50 wandering genetically related humans. Similarly, there was no rational reason to engage in internal "civil wars" over leadership. Leadership was contextual: that is to say that hunter-gatherer groups simply followed the hunting advice of the best hunters (usually men) and the gathering advice by best gatherers (usually women). Older men and women were most likely to accrue more experience and therefore were more-or-less respected by the rest of the group. Ineffective leaders were routinely replaced without violence. </p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif;"><span> Those same scholars agree that warfare emerged about 10,000 years ago, with the advent of the <i>Agricultural Revolution</i>, when humans stopped hunting and gathering and began to live together, collectively, in one geographical location, where they fenced the land and invented private land ownership, agriculture, and animal husbandry. As these stationary communities began to grow in population, more arable land, water, and food was needed. As <i>public property</i> was gradually transformed into <i>private property</i>, many groups were left with no means to feed their populations. Out of sheer necessity, (or perhaps laziness) some small agricultural communities, eventually, began to <i>raid</i> their agrarian neighbors and confiscate their food supply. This inspired the collateral cultural evolution of both <i>offensive</i> and <i>defensive</i> warfare. Henceforth, sustained political leadership required effective/efficient offensive and defensive warfare, which collaterally led to the cultural evolution of both increasingly lethal </span><i>weapon-based technologies</i> and increasingly global <i>communication-based technologies</i>. </p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif;"><span> The earliest weapons, no doubt, consisted of stockpiles of sticks and stones, which gradually <i>evolved</i> into more increasingly efficient killing technologies, from bows and arrows, to guns, aircraft, and ballistic missiles. Co-laterally, communication technology <i>evolved</i> from "word of mouth" (face-to-face) to written word, and most recently, to communication via technologies from radios and telephones, to cell phones, television, and computers. The Vietnam War was the first widely televised war in the United States. Evening media outlets included daily updates, and eventually, 24 hours a day coverage evolved from CNN and later other full-time outlets. Of course, the US government provided war statistics, which invariably suggested that the US was winning that war. </span>Eventually, skepticism arose among those media outlets and the public at large. In the early years of the Vietnam War, would-be soldiers voluntarily enlisted in the "armed forces," lured by a sense of "honor," a reliable paycheck, and an assortment of other benefits including health insurance and college tuition. Many healthcare professionals, engineers and security experts were trained by and later employed by the military. Young men sought long-term military careers and or specialized training, especially in the Air Force. But as the Vietnam War dragged on, casualties mounted, and voluntary enlistment declined. Consequently, the US government revived involuntary <i>conscription </i>(the draft) which alienated middle- and upper-class males and their families. This was accompanied by to <i>deferments</i> for various classes of middle/upper class of males. Conscription was eventually replaced by a lottery system, which determined who was subject to the draft. When I was in college at Eastern Kentucky University, I drew a high number (190) and therefore I was spared the draft. But many of my university friends drew low numbers and were, immediately sent off to fight the Vietnam War. Given the enormous expenses associated with paying soldiers and providing an assortment of costly, military technologies (tanks, warships, bombers, bombs etc.), the Vietnam war became increasingly unpopular and financially unsustainable. Eventually, under pressure from the media and the public at large, the US unceremoniously withdrew from South Vietnam. The United States, Russia, and China still allocate a major proportion of their national budgets to paying and training soldiers and developing new technologies. Ever-burgeoning military budgets financed the development of larger, faster, more accurate, and more lethal technologies and the resulting threats of deploying various "secret weapons" (real or imagined). Innovative competition between nations and the rise of the private arms industry produced the so-called "arms race," which evolved increasingly more effective and efficient weapons by scientifically savvy nations, most notably the United States, Russia, and China. That competition still exists today. <span style="background-color: transparent;">Today, well-armed defensive m</span><span style="background-color: transparent;">ilitary forces and armed citizens often resist, if not expel, those would-be occupying forces.</span><span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span> <span>Near the end of WW II, the United States invented the ultimate weapon. The atomic bomb, which all nations pursued, in order to keep up with the United States and other nuclear nations. Today, warfare has been shaped primarily by increasingly efficient "missile technologies," especially missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons over long distances. These weapons were stockpiled by nuclear nations, which transformed traditional warfare into "mutually assured destruction" (MAD). </span><span>Consequently, human warfare became increasingly, impersonal, as hand-to-hand combat and personal weapons were replaced by armed missiles launched from over the horizon. Ironically, </span><span>atomic weapons became a deterrent to future wars, out of fear of "nuclear holocaust." And nations strategically released information, misinformation, and disinformation concerning their nuclear capacity and their ability to develop and deliver those weapons.</span><span> </span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif;"><span> Warfare today has been indelibly shaped by the interwoven, fast-paced, evolution of both weapon technologies and information technologies. The development of these technologies created markets and/or the desire to hide/reveal possession of those technologies from would-be enemies and/or allies. </span><span>Eventually "rogue nations," including North Korea and Iran, claimed that they possessed "The </span><span>Bomb" and the requisite missile technology necessary to deliver it longer and longer distances. Possession of the "The Bomb" was also used to threaten their neighbors, and/or protect themselves from the US, Russia, and/or China. </span><span>Large offensive armies evolved (or devolved?) into occupying forces, that sought to control the flow of refugees, enforce new legalities, and even rebuild cities. Whether occupying troops could effectively serve as "untrained peace-keepers" or policemen, became an issue, as well. The evolution of </span><span>increasingly portable weapon technologies and communication technologies; created and an ever-growing global market for those technologies; and highly profitable private corporations that manufactured, distributed, and marketed these weapons at home and abroad. Burgeoning national military budgets eventually outpaced all other budgetary concerns and the normalization of deficit spending, especially in the US. </span><span> </span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif;"><span><span> </span><span> </span> </span><span><span> <span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Further Reading</b></span></span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif;"><span><span><span><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></span></span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif;"><span><span><span><span style="font-size: medium; font-weight: bold;"> </span><a href="https://zionism-israel.com/Albert_Einstein/Einstein_Freud_Why_War.htm">Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud, <i>Why War?</i></a></span> </span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif;"><a href="https://freedomsphilosopher.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-ethics-of-war.html">Ronald F. White, <i>The Ethics of War</i></a> <span>Albert Somit and Steven A. Peterson, <i>The Failure of Nation building: The Biological Bases of Authoritarianism, Human Evolution, Behavior, and Intelligence (1997) </i></span><span style="background-color: transparent;"><span face="Roboto, sans-serif">https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9781403978424 </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent;">Albert Somit and Steven A. Peterson, <i>The Failure of Democratic Nation Building </i>(2005) A</span><span style="background-color: transparent;">lbert Somit and Steven A Peterson, <i>Handbook of Biology and Politics</i> (2017) Victor Kumar and Richard Campbell, <i>A Better Ape: The Evolution of the Moral Mind and How it Made Us Human</i> (2022) </span></p><p style="background-color: white;"><b style="font-family: Roboto, sans-serif;"> </b></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif;"><b> </b></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif;"><span> </span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p></div>Freedom's Philosopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15412573018531100508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-409227712629702891.post-39929090233811474632023-01-01T13:27:00.001-05:002023-01-27T07:28:46.560-05:00 Why War? Revisited (Book Proposal) ...............By Ronald F. White, Ph.D. <blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><b> By: Ronald F. White, Ph.D.</b></p></blockquote></blockquote><p><b> Professor Emeritus, Mount St. Joseph University</b></p><p><b> </b></p><p>Introduction</p><p><br /></p><p>Chapter I. Why War?</p><p><br /></p><p>Chapter 2. Warfare Among Other Primate Species</p><p><br /></p><p>Chapter 3. War and Peace Among Hunter-Gatherers</p><p><br /></p><p>Chapter 4. The Agricultural Revolution and Cultural Evolution</p><p><br /></p><p>Chapter 5. The Emergence of Private Property and Defensible Borders</p><p> </p><p>Chapter 6. The Rise of the Nation-State</p><p><br /></p><p>Chapter 7. The Evolving Social Structure of Military Organizations: Men, Women, Children, Gays, Lesbians and Transsexuals</p><p><br /></p><p>Chapter 8. Economic Competition and the Evolution of War and Peace</p><p><br /></p><p>Chapter 9. The Evolution of War Technology</p><p><br /></p><p>Chapter 10. Warfare on Land, on the Sea, in the Air, and on the Internet</p><p><br /></p><p>Chapter 11. World War and World Peace</p><p><br /></p><p>Chapter 12. Contemporary Issues</p><p><br /></p>Freedom's Philosopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15412573018531100508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-409227712629702891.post-62071481669369259332022-09-25T07:51:00.013-04:002023-02-02T07:16:48.360-05:00Part II. War Leadership: Vladimir Putin's Leadership in the Context of Russia's Bombing of Ukraine.<p> <a class="timestamp-link" href="https://ronaldfwhite.blogspot.com/2022/03/part-ii-war-leadership-joe-biden.html" rel="bookmark" title="permanent link"><time class="published" datetime="2022-03-31T05:04:00-07:00" title="2022-03-31T05:04:00-07:00">March 31, 2022</time></a></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span>In case you haven't been following recent media coverage, President Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian army
to invade, neighboring, Ukraine by bombing cities and killing thousands
of civilians. Survivors migrated to other nearby countries, especially
Poland. Critics noted that deliberately bombing cities and killing non-combatants violates the
principles of <b><i>Just War Theory</i></b>, and that Putin is therefore
a war criminal. Although Ukraine is not a member, the European Union
has been sending humanitarian aid and military hardware aid to Ukraine.
Recently, Volodomyr Zylenskyy, duly elected President of Ukraine, traveled to the United States seeking more military hardware,
especially aircraft and missiles, to help enforce a no-fly-zone over
those land areas that the Russians have been using launch to bombers and
missiles. In sum, Putin's invasion raises complex leadership puzzles
for Joe Biden and the various leaders within the European Union. Should
the European Union and/or the United State intervene militarily, if so,
should that intervention include sending not only armaments, but also
armed troops into Ukraine? Would that inspire Putin to use nuclear
bombs? </span></p><p><span>First
of all, Leaders are judged based on four fundamental criteria: 1.) Does
that leader inspire followers? 2.) What goals does that leader inspire
followers to pursue? 3.) Are those goals good/bad, for whom?
4.) Is that leader effective and/or efficient at realizing those
good/bad goals? Let's all agree that Vladimir Putin is a bad
leader, because he deliberately targeted civilians, in violation of
international law; and that he seems to have done so effectively. Let's
postpone the question of whether the bombing is/was an efficient way to
achieve his political goals. </span></p><p><span>Russia's
feeble economy is based on the export of oil and gas, and wheat to
European countries. But European countries have come to rely on these
commodities, and there are no other oil-producing or wheat-producing
countries willing or able to fill the void. Thus, the political issues
include the short-term question of whether or not political leaders in
Europe ought to collectively boycott Russian oil, gas, and, wheat...
even though it would inflict hardship on their own citizens? But do boycotts
really work? If the EU decides to continue to import those products,
they will be inadvertently helping finance Russia's bombing strategy, pay soldiers, and perhaps help expand that invasion to other European countries? Over
the long run, if the EU decides to boycott Russian commodities, the
followers of those respective leaders within the European countries,
will suffer greatly, and the cost of oil and natural gas will skyrocket.
How long will voters in the EU and the US tolerate this high gas and food prices? At
what point will they vote those leaders out of power. In sum, how much
suffering must Western democracies (European and US voters) be willing to endure, in order
to support the boycott (and hopefully) end the Russian bombing of
Ukraine? How long will the Russian people and military leaders tolerate the
high cost of Putin's bombing campaign, and the death of many invading
Russian soldiers? In general, how long can totalitarian leaders remain
in power when they alienate military leaders, their own citizens at
home, and the leaders of neighboring countries... for no good reason?
Let's call it the way it is... this bombing campaign was not only
illegal and immoral, but also profoundly stupid... It cannot end well
for Putin. </span></p><p><span> </span><span style="font-size: large;"> <a href="https://freedomsphilosopher.blogspot.com/2022/05/introduction-to-philosophy-of-culture.html">Part 3</a></span></p>
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</div></div></div>Freedom's Philosopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15412573018531100508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-409227712629702891.post-2370956589592060912022-09-16T09:42:00.219-04:002023-01-10T07:48:17.446-05:00 Reasearch Panel for the Midwest Political Science Association April 1 (4/14 until 2:45) 4023, Palmer House, Chicago, Illinois <p> <b><i><span style="font-size: medium;">The Biological, Cultural, and Technological Evolution of Human Warfare</span></i></b></p><p><b><i><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></i></b></p><p> <i>Organized By:</i><b> </b></p><p><b> Ronald F. White, Ph.D. </b></p><p><b> </b><b>Philosophy Professor Emeritus, </b></p><p><b> </b><b>Mount St. Joseph University, Cincinnati, OH </b></p><p><b> </b><i> Sponsored by: </i><b> </b><b>The Association for Politics and the Life Sciences</b></p><p><b> </b></p><p><b> </b><i>Dedicated to:</i><b> Steven A. Peterson, Ph.D. (Co-Founder of APLS) </b><b> </b></p><p><span> <span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Abstract</b></span></span></p><p><span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span>This Research Panel will explore the biological, cultural, and technological <i>evolution</i> and/or <i>devolution</i> of human warfare, including cultural forces and mental mechanisms that produce it. These sessions will focus on both the historical rise of collective conflict and the variations that have emerged at various times in various places. Together, these sessions will also explain how/why tribal, racial, ethnic, and religious differences affect both war and peace; and the role that long-term and short-term alliances between collectives have affected warfare today. We will also explore the applicability (and/or inapplicability) of <i>Just War Theory</i> to fragmented modern warfare driven by technological innovation, especially: communication technologies, transportation technologies, and weapon technologies. </span></p><p> <b><span style="font-size: medium;">Possible Presentation Themes </span></b></p><p><i>THEME #1. Weapon Technology</i>: How has the evolution of weapon technology contributed to the rise of large-scale impersonal killing of human beings?</p><p><i>THEME #2. Communication Technology</i>: How has the evolution of communications technology contributed to the frequency, lethality, and morality of human warfare?</p><p><span><br /></span></p><p><span><i>THEME #3. Alliances</i>: How has the formation and dissolution of evolving offensive and defensive alliances affected warfare between nations?</span></p><p><span> </span></p><p><span><i>THEME #4. Religion</i>: How have conflicting religious doctrines contributed to war within and between nations, especially "Just War Theory?"</span></p><p><span> </span></p><p><span><i>THEME #5. Political Regimes</i>: How have various political regimes contributed to the persistence of human warfare, especially, democratic, authoritarian, totalitarian, and/or theocratic regimes.</span> </p><p><i>THEME #6. The Role of Women in the Military and During Wartime</i>. Why are women frequently subjected to dehumanizing treatment in male-dominated military organizations. Should more women be recruited, drafted, and promoted to the higher ranks, or is it more complicated than that? Why is rape and murder of female non-combatants by invading forces so common. </p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i>THEME #7. The Russian Invasion of Ukraine: </i>How does Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the response (so far) by the European Union and the United States raise questions about Just War Theory? What role might Russian generals, oligarchs, and the populace play in ending that conflict? How does Putin's threat to employ nuclear weapons in Ukraine play in these peace negotiations? </p><p><b> <span style="font-size: medium;">Participants</span></b></p><p><b>Chair and Commentator</b></p><p> Ronald F. White, Mount St. Joseph University </p><p><b>Panelists</b></p><p> John Amankwah</p><p> Kenneth Blanchard</p><p> Bonnie Chojnacki</p><p> Charles Kroncke</p><p> David Vanderburgh <i> </i><i> </i> </p><p> <span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Introduction to the Evolution of Human Warfare</b> </span>By: Ronald F. White, Ph.D<span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span> When cultural anthropologists study the evolutionary history of the human species, they inevitably seek to explain the emergence of both "peace" and "war," and perhaps wonder to what extent either or both have been shaped over time by biology, culture, or both. There are other primate species that exhibit peaceful and/or warlike behavior, including Bonobos (peaceful) and Chimpanzees (warlike)? It has been argued that for 3.5 million years, human beings lived as peaceful, co-existing hunter-gatherers, and that inter-tribal conflict was rare. Others argue that warfare is a natural human behavior common among many species and a part of the human condition. Some of our oldest artifacts and historical writings chronicle the organized destruction of individual human armies and innocent, bystanders, For philosophers and theologians, warfare has always been puzzling. How, why, and when did small groups of human hunters and gatherers go to war? How did human warfare relate to the pursuit of food via hunting and gathering? We know that with the rise of the Agricultural Revolution (10,000 years ago), human warfare became more evolutionarily salient. With the rise of morality and religion, it became obvious that warfare violated our most sacred and valued principles: beneficence, non-maleficence, liberty, justice, and utility? In times of war the familiar descriptive phrase of that group behavior includes "rape,
pillage, and plunder," But it is only the beginning of the long list of moral
transgressions that typically accompany human warfare. We can add a host of other
equally despicable acts such as torture, lying, slavery, terrorism, and
environmental devastation. Many religious texts documents, including the Old Testament, document the persistence of warfare. Although the act of war itself has not changed much in the past 1000 years or so, it has been reshaped over time by the cultural evolution of military technology, as the capacity for destruction increased exponentially. Today the United
States and other technologically advanced countries have evolved the technological
capacity to completely destroy any major city on earth and render it uninhabitable
for hundreds of years. Thanks to the advent of biological and chemical weapons,
we now, have the ability to kill every single inhabitant in any major city
without destroying a single building. We can even watch all of this live
on television! The task for philosophers and theologians has been to explore
the intersection between war and morality and attempt to set limits to
all this death and destruction. There are two questions that frame the ethics of warfare. Under what conditions is it morally acceptable (or Just) to "engage in war" and once engaged, what behaviors are morally acceptable (or Just) within warfare. There are two classic positions: <i>Just War Theory</i> and <i>Political Realism</i>. Just War Theory includes three alternative theories: <i>Ideal Pacifism</i> (Quakers and Buddhists) will
not engage in violence or war, even in self-defense. It argues that killing human beings is always wrong because it belies a stark disrespect for human life. <i>Modified Pacifism,</i> as dictated by <i>Just War Theory</i>, says that failing to defend oneself (or others) against
an aggressor reveals a fundamental disrespect for one's own life and/or the lives of innocents who are being attacked. Some modified pacifists are <i>utilitarians</i> and argue that the morality of war is to be judged based solely on the "Greatest Happiness Principle" or a favorable balance of benefits over costs. On the other extreme, there is <i>Political Realism, which says </i>that war is,
in fact, imbedded in human nature. Human beings, they argue, have always
acted out of individual and collective self-interest, and therefore will always go to war when the anticipated benefits seem to outweigh the costs. Political realists are utilitarians that believe that "might makes right" and that once
a nation declares war, the ultimate goal is to win at all costs. In the history of human
warfare, they say, you will find that there really are no rules of war,
even though all nations declare that there are moral limits. Rules of war,
they argue, are usually monitored and enforced by the stronger military force (winners) and are typically violated
by both sides. In the real world, rules of war are often employed as propaganda tools intended to rally reluctant citizens behind their war-mongering leaders. That's why in all wars, at all times and in all places, each opposing side
is "dehumanized" and portrayed by the other as an immoral. Political realists, however, see war as an instrument of foreign policy allegedly justified by utilitarian concerns. Just war theorists are pacifists that will engage in war, if and only
if, that war is morally justified. In the course of human history there
have been many theories of just war, however, the theory espoused by St.
Augustine and the Roman Catholic tradition has long dominated the Western tradition. This theory states that a nation can justifiably go <i>to war</i> in order to prevent the loss of human life or the violation of human rights, and that nations may not use war as a means of advancing a nation's economic goals. Once engaged
in war, nations may not engage in unnecessary or in discriminant killing or destruction beyond what is
required to restore peace. While just war theory does aspire to bring
war under the governance of moral principles, it is important to note that,
the just war principles are broad, multiple conflicting interpretations. The process of building an army is also morally problematic. Some soldiers are physically forced to go to war, via conscription, while other soldiers enlist out of "patriotism," "honor," and/or financial reward. In any war, it is not always clear who is the aggressor, since
all parties who engage in war believe that their actions are morally justified.
And of course, when a nation goes to war based on Just War Theory, it is not likely to win if its opponent acts on the basis of Political Realism and, therefore, is willing to indiscriminately kill non-combatants (traditionally women and children), destroy its infrastructure unrelated to the war effort, and disrupt the distribution of civilian food and water supplies. For more detail, check out my earlier blogs on Just War Theory. <a href="https://freedomsphilosopher.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-ethics-of-war.html">The Ethics of War</a> and <a href="https://ronaldfwhite.blogspot.com/2022/02/putins-invasion-of-russia-politics-of.html">Putin's Invasion of Ukraine.</a> </p><p>https://ronaldfwhite.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-nature-and-nurture-of-human-warfare.html </p><p><b> </b><b> </b> </p><p><br /></p><p> </p><dd><br /></dd>Freedom's Philosopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15412573018531100508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-409227712629702891.post-38006212798776604012022-07-14T07:28:00.017-04:002023-02-06T13:02:36.515-05:00Ron White's Songlists<p><b>Surf-Instrumental Rock</b></p><p>1. Walk Don't Run (Am)</p><p>2. Surf Rider Am)</p><p>3. Telstar (A)</p><p>4. Diamondhead (Am)</p><p>5. Tequila (E)</p><p>6. Penetration (F#m)</p><p>7. Apache (Am)</p><p>8. Sleepwalk (C)</p><p>9. Rockin and Surfin (E)</p><p>10. Wild Weekend (G)</p><p>11. The Last Date (C)</p><p>12. Miserlou (E)</p><p>13. Secret Agent Man </p><p>14. War of the Satellites (Am)</p><p>15. Ace of Spades (A)</p><p>16. Jack the Ripper (A)</p><p>17. Rumble (E)</p><p>18. Out of Limits (E)</p><p>19. Pipeline (Em)</p><p>20. Wipeout (C)</p><p>21. Ghost Riders in the Sky (Am)</p><p>22. Sailor's Hornpipe (A)</p><p>23. The Flintstones (G)</p><p><b>Country and Bluegrass Instrumentals</b></p><p>1. Foggy Mountain Breakdown</p><p>2. Blackberry Blossom</p><p>3. Salt Creek</p><p>4. Down Yonder</p><p>5. Bill Cheatam</p><p>6. Eight of January</p><p>7. Devil's Dream</p><p>8. June Apple</p><p>9. Old Joe Clark</p><p>10. John Henry</p><p>11. John Hardy</p><p>12. Black Mountain Rag</p><p>13. Bully of the Town</p><p>14. Foggy Mountain Special</p><p>15. Bluegrass Breakdown</p><p>16. Faded Love</p><p>17. San Antonio Rose</p><p>18. Billy in the Low Ground</p><p>19. Clinch Mountain Breakdown</p><p>20. Sally Goodin</p><p>21. Arkansas Traveler</p><p>22. St. Anne's Reel</p><p>23. Redwing</p><p>24. Red Haired Boy</p><p>25. Irish Wash Woman</p><p>26. Kesh Jig</p><p>27. Earle's Breakdown</p><p>28. Rawhide</p><p>29. Beaumont Rag</p><p>30. Under the Double Eagle</p><p>31. Dill Pickle Rag</p><p>32. Memphis Blues</p><p>33. Alabama Jubilee</p><p>44. Planxty Irwin (D)</p><p>45. Doc's Rag (C)</p><p>46. Green Sleeves (D)</p><p>47. Summertime (Am)</p><p>48. Woody Woodpecker (C)</p><p>49. Oh Susana (D)</p><p><b>Country and Bluegrass Vocals</b></p><p>1. Deep River Blues</p><p>2. Way Downtown</p><p>3. Old Slewfoot</p><p>4. Dark as a Dungeon</p><p>5. Long Black Veil</p><p>6. Dooley</p><p>7. Roll in my Sweet Bay's Arms</p><p>8. Uncle Pen</p><p>9. Blackjack Country Chains</p><p>10. Banks of the Ohio</p><p>11. Sweet Sunny South</p><p>12. Little Maggie</p><p>13. Footprints in the Snow</p><p>14. Blue Moon of Kentucky</p><p>15. Down the Road</p><p>16. Roll on Buddy</p><p>17. Dark Hollow</p><p>18. In the Pines</p><p>19. How Mountain Girls Can Love</p><p>20. Tennessee Walz</p><p>21. Nellie Cane </p><p>22. House of the Rising Sun</p><p>23. Love Potion Number 9</p><p>24. Bear Tracks</p><p>25. Tennessee Stud</p><p>26. Hot Rod Lincoln</p><p>27. Smoke, Smoke, Smoke</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Freedom's Philosopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15412573018531100508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-409227712629702891.post-57725844024136767702022-05-15T07:43:00.057-04:002023-02-02T07:27:44.561-05:00 Part I. Introduction to the Culture of Human Warfare<p> By: Ronald F. White, Ph.D.</p><p> Professor Emeritus of Philosophy</p><p> Mount St. Joseph University</p><p> </p><p><span>In this blog I will develop a preliminary framework for exploring the surprisingly complex meanings of the term "human culture," and the cultural basis for Human Warfare. </span></p><p><span>For Homo Sapiens it is important to acknowledge that "culture" is a collective concept that is shared within groups of humans, especially: families, religions, nations, businesses, and various ethnic groups. Of course, some human <i>feelings</i>, <i>thoughts</i>, and <i>behaviors </i>are entirely programmed by biological evolution and therefore, primarily, genetic in origin; others are shaped by teaching and learning via cultural evolution. And of course, <i>evolutionarily </i>speaking, both <i>beliefs</i> and <i>behavior</i> evolve, devolve, or remain stable over time. And culture is often reshaped by <i>legality</i> and <i>illegality</i>. John Stuart Mill, the founding father of libertarianism argued that laws that dictate illegality must be employed only to the extent that they prevent involuntary "harm to others." Here's a few examples. </span></p><p><span>When I was growing up, we often ate fish on Fridays, call it a family tradition that was inspired by pre-Vatican 2 Roman Catholicism. My mother and father were non-attending Roman Catholic and Episcopalian, respectively. My mother was a full-time mother and housewife, and my dad worked in the air conditioning and refrigeration repair business, He had several customers that sold fried fish, which they gave him for free on Fridays. Other customers offered him free draft beer, cheese, ice cream, steaks, and lobsters. One of our neighborhood cultural traditions was for several neighborhood men to sit on our patio and drink beer and tell jokes with dad after dinner. Of course, mom hated that tradition. But dad had other cultural traditions that limited his drinking. He always went to bed at 10 PM and never drank before noon. Of course, one might argue that dad was an alcoholic, and that those other cultural traditions evolved out of his genetic predisposition toward alcohol consumption. My sisters and I became moderate consumers of alcohol. When I attended Eastern Kentucky University in the early 1970s, the sale of alcohol was prohibited within the Richmond city limits, but legal in the county, which inspired the rise of </span><span>bootleggers. Eventually, the law was changed to illegal only on Sundays, and later it was changed again to allow Sunday sales, after 2 PM. Of course, back then there were no Roman Catholic Churches in Richmond, which would eventually present interesting re-interpretations of the law. </span><span style="font-size: small;">Recently, I developed a habit of drinking scotch whisky between 7 and 9 PM. Here in Cincinnati, until very recently, it was illegal for drug stores and grocery stores to sell "hard liquor." You would have to buy it in a state-licensed liquor store. Today, many grocery stores legally sell "hard liquor." </span><span style="font-size: small;">Note that I surreptitiously introduced the notions of and </span><i>legality</i><span style="font-size: small;"> and </span><i>licensure </i>into our discussion. Local, state, and federal governments paternalistically legalize and/or illegalize various cultural traditions, others outlaw harmless traditions that are offensive to other groups, often dictated by some acknowledged authority. Some legal and/or moral traditions are <i>positive</i>; "you must do A." Some are <i>negative</i>; "you must not do A." And all traditions also evolve, devolve, and/or remain stable over time. Paternalistic laws are intended to promote individual well-being and prevent "harm to self." Governments often employ licensure as a mean of controlling the sale of some products and services. Recently, the FDA illegalized the sale of menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars, which will be challenged in local and state courts; and ultimately, decided by the Supreme Court. The reason for the ban is that many young children illegally obtain these products, and eventually become "addicted" to tobacco via these products. In the absence of legal sanctions, many addictive products get locked into cultural traditions. But highly desired products and services that are rendered illegal, creates <i>black markets</i>, which generate underground illegal behavior that becomes locked into tradition. Historically, the most prolific black markets involved buying and selling of drugs, alcohol, prostitutes, and weapons (especially guns). Black market formation is limited by geographical legal jurisdictions marked by borders. Hence, black markets are often geographically located adjacent to "free markets" which makes it easier to illegally purchase outlawed products and services and "smuggle" them across borders. Sometimes even law enforcement officers surreptitiously participate in lucrative black-market activity. Libertarians, embrace free market activity and restrict illegality to behaviors that involuntarily harm others. It is often argued that <i>addictive</i> products and services are, necessarily, subject to legal intervention. But we libertarians argue that governments must be limited to providing users with objective information about potentially harmful addictive products and or services. "Don't smoke because you'll get cancer." "Don't visit prostitutes or you will catch a disease." Once adults are duly warned about dangerous products and services, any ill-effects become their own personal responsibility. Hence, drinking is legal but driving under the influence of alcohol is illegal. So, to what degree is cultural influence shaped by legality and free choice? How does cultural influence affect harm to others and personal and/or collective responsibility? And how does the philosophy of human warfare explain the universality and long-term persistence of male violence and human warfare, and the fragility of peace? </p><p><i>First</i> of all, let's acknowledge that human warfare is a collective behavior overwhelmingly promulgated by human males. <i>Second</i>, warfare involves leader-follower hierarchical relationships. Old men tend to be the leaders and young men tend to be the followers. <i>Third</i>, the warfare instinct is evident in others forms of rule-based male behavior, especially child's play, and violent sports, including football, hockey, boxing, wrestling, and even baseball. Street gangs and various police organizations also resemble the structure of organized national armies, including territorial control, rule-based leader-follower relationships, financial gain, and the use of military-style weapons. (AK 47s). The puzzle for evolutionary philosophers is how to explain (via genes and/or culture) the longstanding, worldwide, participation of males and the rules and technologies that tend to shape warlike behavior. </p><p> <a href="https://freedomsphilosopher.blogspot.com/2022/09/putins-invasion-of-ukraine.html">Part II</a></p><p> </p><p> </p>Freedom's Philosopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15412573018531100508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-409227712629702891.post-68310252192682494922020-08-08T09:02:00.012-04:002020-08-08T09:32:36.506-04:00Just Hierarchy: Why Social Hierarchies Matter in China and the Rest of the World By: Daniel A. Bell and Wang Pei<p> <span style="font-size: x-large;">The title of this excellent, well-organized, and well-written
book clearly describes its content. It raises important questions concerning
the nature of social hierarchies worldwide, but especially in China and Eastern
philosophical traditions including Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism; with
occasional reference to Western philosophers and contexts. Taken together, the five chapters cover the
most important contexts where social hierarchies shape human feelings,
thoughts, and behavior. Chapters are as follows: Ch. 1<i>.</i> <i>Just Hierarchy Between Intimates</i>
(e.g. friends, lovers, family); Ch. 2. <i>Just
Hierarchy Between Citizens </i>(democracy v. meritocracy), Ch. 3. <i>Just Hierarchy Between States </i>(global
order); Ch. 4.) <i>Just Hierarchy Between Humans
and Animals</i> (food); and, Ch. 5. <i>Just
Hierarchy Between Humans and Machines</i> (artificial intelligence). Despite this obvious breadth of analysis, some
philosophers will question its depth within the five contexts. Others will its
rather cursory discussion of the philosophical underpinnings of the concept of “justice”
(merit, need, equality, and utility). Other critics will point out that it
neglects recent research on evolutionary psychology and evolutionary leadership.
Others will bemoan the relatively sparse reference to Western religious hierarchies
especially the Roman Catholic Church, and divisive, unjust Western political leaders
like Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. In short, there is plenty of room for
future research. Moreover, this is highly recommended as a college textbook in
both disciplinary and interdisciplinary courses and an important acquisition for
most academic libraries. Public libraries with well-developed collections
in the social sciences, philosophy, and/or religious studies will also find this to be
a worthy acquisition. </span></p><p><span> Forthcoming Review for <i>Choice Magazine</i> by:</span></p><p><span> Ronald F. White, Professor Emeritus </span><span>Mount St. Joseph University </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>Freedom's Philosopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15412573018531100508noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-409227712629702891.post-79787717217395591412020-07-31T17:08:00.000-04:002020-08-01T07:52:21.850-04:00Ronald F. White (Ron White): Pictures<br />
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<br />Freedom's Philosopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15412573018531100508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-409227712629702891.post-24571315978806560682020-07-09T08:29:00.000-04:002020-07-09T08:30:58.627-04:00Ron White: On Acoustic Guitar<a href="https://www.facebook.com/100000571885443/videos/pcb.3789225947773097/3789223267773365/?type=3&__tn__=HH-R&eid=ARAp432TlgCUnxKBaU9j-XE2VEZ54HKqLozBRtXaGyjewPueklvSJRMSQRrpdiL_ZgfDqnhMOFE4x1zx" target="_blank">Deep River Blues </a><br />
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/100000571885443/videos/3789214697774222/?t=12" target="_blank">Cannonball Rag</a><br />
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<br />Freedom's Philosopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15412573018531100508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-409227712629702891.post-82254792840324903092020-02-26T07:50:00.000-05:002020-02-26T07:50:04.012-05:00Richard Robb, Willful: How We Choose What We Do (Yale University Press: 2019) Reviewed for Choice Magazine<br />
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Richard Robb, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Willful: How We Choose What We Do</i> (Yale
University Press: 2019)<o:p></o:p></div>
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Reviewed for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Choice Magazine</i> <o:p></o:p></div>
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By:<o:p></o:p></div>
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Ronald F. White, PhD<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The history of philosophy is rife with works that address
the old distinction between freedom and determinism of human thought and/or
human action. Classical/Neoclassical economists embrace “rational choice
theory” in order to explain, predict, and/or control consumer behavior. While
this new book does not seek to disprove rational choice theory, it does seek to
add another dimension, which we might call, irrational (or non-rational) choice
theory. Thus, Robb reduces human action to two categories: rational “purposeful
acts” that are performed in anticipation of pleasurable consequence in the
near/distant future;” and irrational and/or non-rational acts that are
performed because they are (or appear to be) “good for themselves.” If that
sounds familiar, it does harken back to the old philosophical distinction
between “extrinsic” and “intrinsic” value. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although this book is well-written and rife
with interesting examples, and perspectives, it does reflect state-of-the-art
research. The most egregious research omissions include reference recent books
by: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cass R. Sunstein on social and
political “influence;” and. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mark van Vugt
on “biological and cultural evolution.” Despite, it’s obvious scholarly deficiencies,
it is rife with interesting examples and puzzles that might inspire other economists
to take into account more rigorous, interdisciplinary approaches to
understanding consumer behavior. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Freedom's Philosopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15412573018531100508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-409227712629702891.post-28794506646913024972020-01-26T15:56:00.001-05:002020-01-26T16:04:13.348-05:00 Book Review<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: large;">Exposing the 20 Medical Myths: </span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Why Everything You Know About Health Care is Wrong </i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>and How to Make It Right</i> </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">By: Arthur Garson Jr., MD and Ryan Holeywell </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">(Rowman & Littlefield)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This is a
concise, up-to-date, rigorously referenced analysis of twenty of the most
troublesome “myths” that continue to misguide the American public’s views about
health care. Most of the myths discussed are well-known by scholars, and have
been “busted” by other previous works. Like other works within this “myth-busting”
genre, this book often relies on a rigorous comparison between the health care
systems in the US, Canada, and Europe. Of those 20 myths, the first and last are
highly representative: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chapter 1</i>. “US
Health Care is the Best in the World.” And, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chapter
20. </i>“There is No Health-Care System That Will Work for the United States.” Other
US issues include: preventative care, doctor shortage, malpractice, and
emergency room treatment. The authors argue that public acknowledgement these twenty
myths is necessary for sustained long-term planning and reform. Critics might observe
that the book omits many other important myths, especially a variety of “myths”
related to the education of US health care professionals. Nevertheless, this is
a highly recommended textbook for undergraduate and graduate students, health
care policy scholars, the general public, and anyone who still believes that health
care in the US is the best in the world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
Reviewed for <i>Choice Magazine</i> by: </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Ronald F. White, PhD</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Mount St. Joseph University<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Freedom's Philosopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15412573018531100508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-409227712629702891.post-68687968177381969752019-10-12T09:05:00.000-04:002020-01-13T07:35:57.428-05:00Proposal Accepted by the 2020 Conference on the Value of Play: Clemson University, March 29-April 1,2020<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Religion and the Biological and Cultural and Evolution
Child’s Play</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
Ronald F. White,
Ph.D.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
Professor of
Philosophy<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
Mount St. Joseph
University<o:p></o:p></div>
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Abstract</div>
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All human behavior can be explained in terms the interaction
between biological and cultural evolution. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Biological
evolution is marked by timeless-universality; or patterns of behavior that have
“evolved” very little since the Pleistocene Era (3.4 million years ago).
Cultural evolution explains patterns of behavior that are relative to specific times
and places. Thus, child’s play can be explained in terms of both biology and
culture. Religious behavior is similarly shaped by both biology and culture. The
formation of what we call “organized religions” begin in the years following
the Agricultural Revolution. Since then, a host of religions have exerted profound
influences upon human behavior, especially the behavior of young children. Although
the empirical study of child’s play reveals a broad under-current of timeless
universality, it also indicates many contextual elements that are culturally relative
to both time and place. Thus, worldwide, a variety of religions continue to determine
how children can play, with whom they can play, and where they can play. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This presentation will explore the ever-widening
mismatch between childhood behaviors shaped by biology and behaviors that are
re-shaped by religious cultures. This talk will emphasize, the role that adult religious
leaders and followers play in perpetuating that bio-cultural mismatch. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Freedom's Philosopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15412573018531100508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-409227712629702891.post-36976017572922621372019-10-05T10:01:00.004-04:002019-10-05T10:14:48.384-04:00The Evolutionary Foundations of Charismatic Leadership <br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">The Evolutionary Foundations
of Charismatic Leadership</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Ronald F. White (Mount
St. Joseph University, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">(Forthcoming in <i>Routledge Handbook of Charisma</i> ed. Jose Pedro Zuquete (2020))</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Abstract<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Beginning
in the 1960s, Charismatic Leadership Theory (CLT) argued that human followers
are naturally attracted to leaders who possess a mysterious collection of
traits and/or skills called charisma. Subsequently, there was serious scholarly
debate over which charismatic traits and/or skills are necessary and/or
sufficient for leaders to attract and maintain followers in various
organizational contexts. Those traits and skills tended to be associated with
“tall, healthy male leaders.” Evolutionary Leadership Theory (ELT) employs both
biological and cultural evolution to explain how and why both biology and
culture are essential to understanding charismatic leadership. This
chapter will address four main issues. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Firs</i>t,
it will argue that leadership involves both traits and skills. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Second, </i>it will explore the degree to
which charismatic male political leaders, today, can maintain leadership without
effectively fulfilling follower expectations. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Third, </i>it will explain why female political leaders lack charisma,
and how that might affect the future of female leadership and followership. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fourth, </i>this chapter will raise the question
of how the cultural changes wrought the emergence of global information
technologies have influenced charismatic leadership and the perception of
“distress” among vulnerable followers. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Keywords<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Charismatic
Leadership Theory (CLT), Evolutionary Leadership Theory (ELT), biological
evolution, cultural evolution<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Beginning in the 1960s, leadership
theorists steeped in the social sciences proposed and defended a series of opposing
“leadership theories,” including: trait theories, behavioral theories, cognitive
theories, emotive theories, transactional theories, transformational theories,
authenticity theories, and contextual theories. (Sontag, Jenkins, &White
2011) Those early leadership theories sought to empirically <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">describe</i> how good leaders (in fact) lead
followers. At that time, there was little (if any) analysis of the behavior of
followers, bad leaders, and/or bad followers. Subsequent theories began to explore
the various organizational contexts where leader-follower relationships take
place, and, those scholars prescribed “values” that allow us to differentiate
between good/bad organizations, good/bad leaders, good/bad followers, and
good/bad leader-follower relationships. Most recently, leadership scholars have
sought to develop a “general theory of leadership” that might unify the aforementioned
theories, facts, and values associated with both good and bad leadership and/or
followership. (Goethals & Sorenson 2006) Evolutionary Leadership Theory (ELT)
proposes that biological and cultural evolution, together, explain human
leadership, including charismatic leadership. (van Vugt 2006, 2008, 2011, 2012)
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">This chapter will explain how and why charismatic
leaders and their followers are both “born” and “made;” and how and why both
biological and cultural evolution are necessary components of any complete explanation
of charismatic leader-follower relationships. Although charismatic leadership
is embedded in human nature, throughout most of human history, charisma alone, has
never been sufficient for maintaining leadership. Leaders have always had to effectively
lead followers toward the fulfillment of organizational goals, ends, or
purposes that followers value. Critics of contemporary leadership observe that,
today, we are suffering from a dearth of effective/efficient leadership. If this
observation is true, then how might ELT explain this phenomenon and perhaps
contribute to the re-emergence of more effective and efficient political leaders?
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Before we get underway, this chapter builds
upon three bodies theoretical knowledge that elucidate the nature of charisma: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Organizational Theory, Democratic Political
Theory, </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Evolutionary Theory</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">First of all, the guiding principle that
underlies <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Organizational Theory</i> is
that we humans, naturally, organize ourselves into groups based on leadership
and followership. The myriad organizations that we spawn serve a wide variety
of human ends or purposes in many different contexts. Our participation in
organizational activities is highly variable, as we all tend to cooperate with many
organizations to variable degrees. We participate and/or withdraw from
organizations in order to advance our personal and/or collective interests and
avoid or remove harms. Some organizations are more <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">effective</i> at bringing about intended organizational ends or
purposes, and among those effective organizations, some are more <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">efficient</i> than others. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Today,
most scholars agree that any theory of organizational leadership must explain
both good and bad organizations, leaders, and followers. Some organizations pursue
morally praiseworthy goals, with greater or lesser degrees of effectiveness and
efficiency, while other organizations pursue blameworthy goals with greater or lesser
effectiveness and efficiency. Unfortunately, some of the most effective and
efficient political leaders in human history, such as Adolph Hitler (Toland,
1976), and Jim Jones (Guinn, 2017) were very effective and efficient at maintaining
followers and bringing about morally repugnant goals via malevolent
organizations. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Secondly, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Democratic Political Theory</i> attempts to explain, predict, and
control the outcome of democratic elections. Much of it devoted to identifying
contextual variables such as: who can legally vote, how voting is conducted,
where are the polling places, when is voting conducted, who shows up at the
polling place, who transports ballots, and who counts the ballots. Within
diverse democratic regimes, identity-based voting patterns have also become
increasingly relevant, especially patterns based on: age, gender, race,
ethnicity, and nationality. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thirdly,
this chapter will focus primarily on the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Biological
and Cultural Evolution</i> of charisma in the context of “political organizations”
and the role that effectiveness and efficiency historically played in limiting the
power of charisma. It will, however, occasionally refer to other contexts, such
as: military, religious, and business organizations. By way of conclusion, this
chapter will suggest that revolutionary changes in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Information Technology</i> have had a profound influence on the political
survival of ineffective and/or inefficient male political leaders within
democratic political regimes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Charismatic Leadership Theory<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Historically, the term “charisma” was used
to describe a variety of human relationships whereby one person (or group of
persons) is attracted to another. The origin of the term “charisma” can be
traced back to the Ancient Greek term “charis,” which means “charm, beauty, or
allurement.” (Grabo 2017) Even today, that aura of mysticism associated with Charismatic
Leadership Theory (CLT) remains intact. However, today the nature of
charismatic relationships has been largely demystified by behavioral
psychology, and therefore, today, the concept is rarely encountered outside of
the historiography of leadership studies. Recent scholars, now explore
“charisma” under the rubric of the concept of “influence.” (Sunstein 2014,
2016, 2017)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In its initial form, CLT was one of ten
competing theories of leadership. (van Vugt 2011) It argued that the most
positively influential leaders, such as John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King,
and Mahatma Gandhi, attracted followers via a set of emotive factors called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">charisma</i>. Those ten early leadership
theories, therefore, tended to focus on the extraordinary traits of male
leaders who effectively elicited a positive, trusting emotive response among
followers. Although the early charismatic scholars sought to identify
timelessly universal traits and or skills, later scholars observed that
charisma is also contextual and relative to specific cultures, times, and/or
specific places. Thus, what might be interpreted as charismatic at any given
place or time, was often relative to group identity via by culturally-specific
variables, especially:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>tribe, race,
ethnicity, religion, or political party. This complexity, no doubt, contributed
to the longstanding undercurrent of inexplicable mystery associated with
charisma, which tended to discourage serious empirical analysis. (Marturano
& Arsenault 2008) Although, the nature of charismatic influence has been
largely decoded, it is important to acknowledge that charisma is still
associated with the traits and skills most-often possessed by male leaders. How
and why has charismatic leadership among humans, changed over time? In the
modern age of information technology, how and why do charismatic male political
leaders, today, attract, maintain, and/or lose followers. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Biological and Cultural Evolution<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Contemporary biology is dominated by
Darwinian evolutionary theory. Back in the late nineteenth century, Darwin
theorized that all living species survive by systematically adapting to
ever-changing environmental conditions. Darwin identified three interacting mechanisms:
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">replication</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">chance variation</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">natural selection</i>.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">All living things replicate themselves via
reproduction. Reproduction takes place within and between closely related species,
and therefore, organisms within the same species (and/or closely related
species), share common traits. However, by sheer chance (as Darwin put it), the
process of replication also generates variation among those traits,
individuals, and species. As biological environments change over time, some “chance
variations” become advantageous to the individual lifeforms that inherit those
traits. Hence, those advantaged lifeforms (genes, individuals, species, and
ecosystems) are more likely to survive long enough to pass those genes onto the
next generation; and consequently, those descendants, also tend to survive. Conversely,
other variations turn out to be a liability, and ultimately contribute to the
extinction of the life forms that inherit them. Darwin discovered the mechanism
responsible for selecting winners and losers within various environments. He
called it Natural Selection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Some living systems and the environments
in which they survive. remain stable for long periods of time, only to be
interrupted by revolutionary change wrought by variation and selection. Microcosmic
organisms (especially bacteria and viruses) tend to evolve at a fast-pace,
while macrocosmic organisms (especially animals and humans) evolve at a slow
pace. Some changes are deemed “progressive” because they increase the ultimate survivability
of those life forms (genes, individual organisms, species, and ecosystems). But
other variations are seen as “regressive” or “devolutionary,” because those
changes contribute to the long-term extinction of those life forms. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Post-Darwinian scholars later observed that
the history of human culture, including beliefs, skills, and technologies can
also be theoretically explained in terms of replication, variation and
selection; and, therefore, the history of human cultures and subcultures can be
similarly explained in terms of “survival of the fittest.” Fast-paced cultural
revolutions can beget systemic changes that effect the survivability of entire
cultures and subcultures, including their collective beliefs, skills, and
technologies. During the twentieth-century, evolutionary epistemologists
debated whether various human cultures and/or subcultures objectively exhibit
stability, progress, or regression; and questioned the degree to which biology
shapes culture and/or culture shapes biology. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Given that the traits that comprise the human
species tend to evolve very slowly, and our cultural systems evolve much
faster, bio-cultural mismatches are inevitable. Some mismatches are evolutionary,
progressive, and life-enhancing; some are devolutionary, regressive, and
life-threatening, and some mismatches are inconsequential. Some mismatches are
progressive or regressive over the short-run and some are progressive or
regressive over the long-run. The impact of bio-cultural mismatches is usually
easier to predict over the short-run than over the long-run. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Evolutionary Leadership Theory<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">So how might ELT go about explaining
charismatic political leadership?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well,
the first step is to distinguish between proximate and ultimate explanations. (White
2017) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Proximate Explanations</i> explain
who, how, where, and when leaders lead<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">. Ultimate
Explanations </i>explain why those leaders lead. For many centuries, the
ultimate explanation for all human behavior was based on the Doctrine of
Special Creation, whereby God created the world, plants and animals. The human
species was regarded “special” in that God created us in his own image selected
certain men to lead organizations. Since the late 19<sup>th</sup> century,
ultimate explanations based on Biblical authority have been supplanted and by
Darwinian Evolutionary Theory. Of course, defenders of Biblical authority
objected to the fact that Darwin attributed variation to chance, rather than
God’s will, and his insistence that the border lines between various species
are malleable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Like all biological traits, patterns
of leadership and followership among various species are the products of
biological evolution. Scientists who embrace ELT observe that that there is
both continuity and variation within and between the various species of social animals;
especially between humans and our closest primate relatives: chimpanzees and
bonobos. (De Waal 2005) Among political scientists, this observation spawned a
debate between defenders of the “good natured hypothesis” (Corning 2011, 2018)
and the “bad natured hypothesis” (Somit and Peterson 1997; and Wrangham and
Peterson 1996). The good-natured hypothesis views human nature as mostly
non-violent and peaceful. The bad-natured hypothesis sees human nature violent
and warlike.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In terms of political psychology,
chimpanzee societies are male-dominant, hierarchical, and authoritarian.
Leadership is often sustained via violence and/or threats of violence.
(Wrangham & Peterson 1996) In contrast, bonobo societies tend to be
female-dominant, non-hierarchical, democratic, and peaceful. Although, human
beings exhibit both chimpanzee and bonobo political behaviors, scholars
disagree over whether our genes naturally predispose us more toward
authoritarianism or egalitarianism. State-of-the-art genetic testing indicates
that present-day humans are slightly more closely related to bonobos than
chimpanzees and that authoritarian leadership orchestrated by physically
dominant, alpha males is primarily the product of cultural evolution. So how
and why did cultural evolution bring about and sustain male-dominated
authoritarianism? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Again, proponents of ELT rarely use the
term “charisma” but rather seek to identify the specific <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">traits</i> and/or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">skills</i> that
successful political leaders possess and/or acquire. ELT acknowledges the fact
that at all times and all places the vast majority of political leaders have
been “tall, fit, male leaders.” (van Vugt 2011) That simple observation raises
a host of age-old questions. Is charisma primarily comprised of traits and/or
skills? Why are those traits and/or skills seemingly possessed mostly by males?
If charisma is overwhelmingly a biological trait, then someday, might future
charismatic leaders be identified at birth via a DNA test or a brain scan. Or, perhaps
the physical components of charisma might someday be manufactured via surgical
techniques. If charisma is purely a matter of acquiring a skill set, then then can
any aspiring leader those skills and thereby attract and maintain followers? If
so, what precisely are those skills, how are those skills best taught and/or
acquired? Have those essential leadership skills changed over time?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">ELT observes that the human brain evolved
very slowly; and that it is still, nearly identical to that of our Stone Age
progenitors. Hunters and Gatherers survived (if not thrived) for 3.5 million
years wandering the savannas of Africa years in groups of 100-150 individuals. (Giphart
and van Vugt 2018) Throughout the Pleistocene Era, there was no single leader
perched on the top of an authoritarian hierarchy. Leaders were contextually chosen
on the basis of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">merit</i>; that is, those
who obviously possessed the specific traits and skills necessary for group survival.
In short, the most effective/efficient hunter(s) led hunting expeditions, the most
effective/efficient gatherer(s) led the gathering process, the most effective/efficient
warrior(s) led the group in warfare, and the most effective/efficient navigators
led migration. Those traits and skills were rarely (if ever) possessed by the
same person. There were no elections. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The most effective and efficient hunters, warriors,
navigators tended to be “tall, fit, males” (van Vugt & Ahuja 2011). But among
hunter and gatherers that initial charisma, alone, was never enough to sustain leadership.
Based on observational consensus, ineffective and/or inefficient leaders were
readily detected by followers and replaced by leaders that were more
effective/efficient. Thus, for over 3.5 million years, effectiveness and efficiency
trumped initial charisma. Why? Because, over the long run, communities that
protected charismatic, but ineffective and/or inefficient leaders, suffered extinction;
via either starvation, or by being conquered by other groups with more
effective and efficient leaders.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The question of the relative frequency
that Pleistocene hunter-gatherers changed leaders is still open to scholarly
debate. (Buckner 2017) Unfortunately, the vast majority of hunter-gatherer
societies are now extinct and the accuracy of anthropological studies of those
few remaining hunter-gather societies has been called into question.
Nevertheless, over the course of 3.5 million years, it is probably safe to
assume that while the human population remained rather sparse, and when food
was plentiful, most hunter-gathers groups rarely encountered out-groups. When
they did… those groups looked a lot like themselves and were mostly friendly.
If either group felt threatened, group leaders probably chose to move to
another location rather than risk a lethal confrontation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">At least some groups of early homo sapiens
emerged out of Africa, and therefore, for millions of years, those humans
looked and acted alike. However, over millions of years, human population
groups began to migrate into different environments and physically adapt to
those environments, and developed different physical attributes such as skin
color. Henceforth, charismatic political leadership became linked to “group
identity,” which is comprised of a host of contextual physical attributes,
which were later associated with gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, and
socioeconomic class. Worldwide there is still strong propensity for various immigrant
groups to live together based on group identity. In democracies, there is still
a strong propensity for voters to elect leaders based on gender, race, ethnicity,
and/or nationality.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">After the Agricultural Revolution those
essential leadership contexts (migration, hunting, warfare, and gathering) were
replaced by the emergence of a host of new opportunities for leadership. Those
emerging contexts were spawned by fast-paced, cultural evolution initially associated
with animal husbandry and agriculture. As the size of human communities grew,
and food production was collectivized, communities became increasingly reliant
upon technical knowledge and skills. As the size and population of stationary
communities increased, food was stockpiled, which created opportunities for
invasion by outside groups. This motivation contributed to the cultural
evolution of both offensive and defensive military leadership and rapidly
evolving military technologies. Thus, over the last 12,000 years or so human
politics evolved (or devolved) from informal democratic meritocracies to into
formal authoritarian regimes. At first these Post-AR communities were led by
military authorities, later by religious authorities, eventually business
authorities. Modern humans are still charismatically attracted to those tall, fit,
male leaders. However today, given the rapid pace of cultural evolution as
compared to the slow pace of biological evolution. There is a rapidly growing “mismatch”
between our natural propensity for democratic, contextual, merit-based
leadership and our more recently acquired cultural attraction to leaders who
promise to save us from an endless stream of emergencies, both real and
imagined. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">While human biology evolved slowly over
millions of years; human culture has been shaped by fast-paced, revolutionary
change. Information technology has expanded and accelerated the growing
mismatch between charismatic political leaders and the sustainability of
political organizations. Aspiring charismatic leaders who were able to adapt to
this rapidly changing cultural environment survived, while those who could not
evolve, suffered extinction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">For at least 3.5 million years, charisma
was a reliable indicator of effective/efficient political leadership. Throughout
the Pleistocene Era the primary leadership opportunities were associated with
hunting and gathering. For those small groups of hunter-gatherer societies,
charismatic leaders tended to be tall, strong, healthy males; who tended to be
the most effective and efficient hunters, warriors, and migratory leaders.
Thus, for millions of years, charismatic leadership; as signified by tall,
strong, healthy males contributed to the survival of the human species. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">However, subsequent to the Agricultural Revolution,
tall, fit, males no longer signaled effective/efficient leadership. As the size
and population of Post-AR communities increased, other skills, including oratory
prowess, became an increasingly important components of charismatic leadership.
Henceforth, political leadership became monopolized by tall, fit, articulate
males.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Revolutions in information
technology, transportation technology, and weapon technology accelerated that
process. Ironically, although large-scale leaders, today, have become
increasingly ineffective and inefficient, marketing technology has become
increasingly effective and efficient. Thus, it has become increasingly
difficult to determine exactly what large-scale, charismatic leaders do; and whether
their stated goals have been effectively and efficiently achieved. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Since the dawning of the Agricultural
Revolution, 12,000 years ago, political organizations have been increasingly vulnerable
to male-dominant, charismatic attraction. Even today, military organizations,
religious organizations, and business organizations remain male dominant. All
three leadership contexts required specific traits and skills that allowed them
to remain in power. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Even today, large-scale military,
religious, business, and political organizations are still led by those “tall, fit,
articulate males. Charismatic leaders not only look the part, but also claim to
possess technical knowledge of value to followers and the community at large.
Military leaders claim to know how to effectively/efficiently win wars.
Religious leaders know how to effectively/efficiently please God? Business
leaders know how to effectively/efficiently earn a profit. And political
leaders claim to know how to effectively/efficiently run government. <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Charisma and Distress<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Max Weber observed that followers are most
vulnerable to the lure of charismatic leaders when they find themselves in
“moments of distress.” (Weber 1978).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Fear, often increases followers’ willingness to follow charismatic
leaders who promise to alleviate those fears. However, given the fact that it
is often much easier to “promise” to alleviate distress than it is to fulfill
that promise, we should not be surprised to learn that many (if not most)
charismatic leaders fail to alleviate the various forms of distress that
followers experience. Therefore, throughout most of human history,
ineffective/inefficient political leaders have lost followers via political revolutions.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
democratic political regimes, charisma still serves as a necessary initial
condition for acquiring political leadership. The hallmark of modern leadership
has been the cultural evolution of a set of skills that now enable charismatic
leaders to create and/or manufacture “moments of distress,” and the belief
among followers that they, alone, can alleviate those real or imagined sources
of distress. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Even back in the Middle Ages, Nicolo Machiavelli
observed that, charismatic leaders must possess human management skills; which
include skills that enable them to manipulate the feelings and emotions of
followers, and skills that enable them to manipulate information. Thus,
historically, the most enduring autocratic leaders have always been highly-skilled
at flaunting their effectiveness and/or disguising their ineffectiveness. Machiavelli
also noted that charismatic leaders, survive by effectively manipulating the
fear of followers. “It’s better to be feared than loved.” (Machiavelli 1532). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In today’s large-scale modern democracies,
charismatic leaders also manipulate information by arguing that their policies
serve “the greater good,” and that self-sacrifice by distressed followers is
necessary, over the short term, in order to bring about thee “greater good”
over the long-term. This strategy can often placate those who remain in
distress, at least temporarily. Indeed, that’s how ineffective/inefficient charismatic
leaders can maintain political power for a long time, even though, objectively
speaking, they accomplish very little of substance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It is also worth noting that advancements
in organizational psychology and behavioral economics, have made political
leaders and business leaders more effective and efficient at marketing themselves
and their ideas. Cass R. Sunstein and others have decoded much of the brain
science that underlies charismatic influence. They base their findings on two
cognitive operations of the human brain. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">System
1</i> operations are “fast, automatic, and intuitive.” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">System 2</i> is slow, calculative, controlled, and deliberative.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Sunstein 2017) Unfortunately, as behavioral
economics continues to advance, both “good leaders” and “bad leaders” will be
able to more effectively and efficiently “nudge” followers. (White 2018) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Gender, Age and Charismatic Politics<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Since the 1960s, there has been growing debate
over the role that women “in fact” play in democratic politics, and the role
they “ought” to play. As noted above, since the Pleistocene Era, political
behavior has been male dominated. However, women gradually acquired a variety
of skills related to gathering food. These skills were passed on to subsequent
generations via teaching and learning. The degree to which hunter-gatherer
societies relied on hunting v. gathering for their long-term survival has been
a lively area of discussion among scholars. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Today, aspiring female political leaders, are
rarely (if ever) described in charismatic terms. Even in modern democracies,
it’s been only in very recent times that women have been legally empowered to
vote, let along run for political office. Today, when women do run for office,
they often compete with those charismatic men. This raises the obvious question
of whether charisma is merely a remnant of post AR sexism, and whether male
political dominance has been sustained by biology, culture, or both.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Human survival has been shaped and
reshaped by both natural selection and sexual selection. Both involve both competition
and cooperation. Natural Selection most often emphasizes
competition/cooperation in the quest for food and protection. Sexual Selection
focuses on competition/cooperation in the area of reproduction. Early research reduced
human reproduction to the “battle of the sexes” metaphor, which focused on dating,
mating, and child-rearing. For many years, scholars embraced the “standard
narrative,” which argued that “men are cads and women are whores.” (Ryan and Jethá
2010). That is to say: males promise to share their resources with the most
beautiful females with “hourglass figures” in exchange for resources; and that
those females promised to exchange exclusive sex for those resources. In short,
human reproduction was reduced to competition between horny males, competition
between willing whores, and cooperation between two in producing and raising children
that survive long enough to reproduce. Of course, “whores” were attracted to the
most effective and efficient “breadwinners” and the cads were attracted to whores
that were the most effective and efficient “child bearers” and “child
nurturers.” Those early scientists also believed that monogamy is the natural
strategy for bearing and caring for children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">However, more recent ethologists now agree
that there are no monogamous primates and that hunter-gatherer societies were
polygamous. Given the reality of multiple sexual partners, no one really knew
who was their daddy, children, they argued survived thanks to groups of
cooperative mommies and daddies. And, of course, women were sexually attracted
to those tall, fit male leaders, who tended to be the most effective/efficient
hunters, warriors, and navigators.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In sum, for 3.5 million years, leadership
was contextual. Although charismatic males that exhibited strength and health
were often initially selected as contextual leaders, in the end sustained political
leadership was contingent upon demonstrable contextualized effectiveness and
efficiency. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hence, throughout most of
human history, leadership was contextual based on demonstrated competence in hunting,
warfare, and migration. And, females were sexually attracted to these strong
healthy males. This contextualized, merit-based democratic political system
worked for about 3.5 million years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">However, a mere 12,000 years ago the
Agricultural Revolution changed all that, as those small, itinerate, communities
began to live in stationary settlements, which grew larger in terms of
population and occupied territory. As these settlements grew, the need for more
food led to the cultural evolution of ever-increasingly effective and efficient
food production. Thus the cultural emergence of agriculture and husbandry, and
the technical knowledge and skills required for the large scale production of food,
facilitated the creation of increasingly larger stationary settlements. This
led directly to a meteoric increase in human occupational diversity and new opportunities
for leadership. As food production in some communities became increasingly effective
and efficient, so did the knowledge and skills associated with theft and lethal
raiding by both insiders and outsiders. Thus, political leadership changed as
our natural democratic instincts were undermined by the cultural emergence of self-defense
mechanisms, especially police, military, religious, and business institutions.
As men gravitated toward this growing number of employment and leadership
opportunities, women were culturally restricted to home life and child care via
both morality and legality.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The question of whether age plays a role
in charismatic male leadership remains a puzzle, especially in light of recent
advancements in human health and healthcare. To what degree are organizations
predisposed to select “older, tall, fit, articulate males?” During the
Pleistocene Era, age was certainly a reliable indicator of experiential
knowledge in both hunting and warfare, but also an indicator diminished
physical fitness. Of course, today much depends on what we mean by “older,”
especially in Western cultures where both males and females can expect to live
into their eighties? Some older leaders possess knowledge from past
generations, but lack detailed knowledge of the most recently culturally
evolved technologies, skills, and knowledge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Information Conveyance Technology</span></i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">ELT acknowledges that throughout human
history, charisma played at least an initial role in the empowerment of male
political leaders. Throughout the Pleistocene Era, charismatic leadership was
contextual and merit-based. “Tall, fit, male leaders” tended to be successful
in the contexts of hunting, warfare, and migration. But ultimately, merit, in
the form of effectiveness and efficiency, trumped that initial charisma.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">If it is true that we in the United States
are now suffering from a contagion of bad political leadership, how and why did
that come about? One likely explanation is that leadership and followership have
been profoundly reshaped by the cultural evolution of information conveyance
technology. The history of information conveyance includes both travel and
communication technologies. Early travel technologies included the wheel, cart,
saddles etc. More recent transportation technologies include trains,
automobiles, and airplanes; and recent communication technologies include
telegraph, telephone, radio, television. Throughout the Pleistocene era,
information was communicated face-to-face via gestural language and later the
spoken word. The earliest information technologies included writing on clay
tablets and papyri. The most recent communication technologies are digital and computer
related, including Internet, e-mail, and social media. So how has the rise of digital
technology effected charismatic leadership? Gregg Murray put it, most
succinctly. We now live “in a digital world with a stone age brain.” (Murray
2019)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The most profound consequence of the rise of
digital technology has been the increased opportunity for charismatic leaders
to instantaneously display their charisma (real or manufactured) on a manifestly
larger scale. Correspondingly, those “tall, fit, males” also rapidly adapted to
the digital environment by developing a new set of skills designed to initially
attract and retain targeted classes of followers. However, as noted above, at
least historically, charismatic political leaders must (eventually) fulfill
their campaign promises to followers with an acceptable level of effectiveness
and efficiency, and communicate information to followers. But the transmission
of information has always been variably effective and efficient. And (of
course) communication technologies can be deployed in order to transmit both
Truth and Falsehood. Thus followers, increasingly relied upon their “trust,” of
leaders, which, over time, has also become more easily manipulated by those techno-savvy
leaders. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The most puzzling question for today’s
democracies is whether followers can still effectively and efficiently resist
the initial lure of charismatic leaders, at least long enough to determine whether
those leaders are (in fact) trustworthy, and whether they are effectively/efficiently
fulfilling their promises. Given the recent explosion of information,
misinformation, and disinformation which is now spread via digital technology, it
has become increasingly more difficult for Americans to decide who to vote for.
Recent research on voting behavior is a bit disappointing, as most members of the
U.S. congress are still tall, white males, who get reelected year-after-year,
regardless of whether they have (in fact) effectively and efficiently done anything
that followers value. Thus, today’s political leadership scholars must now explain
how and why political leaders manipulate followers via information technologies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Another area of recent concern explores the
role that information technology plays in the promulgation of follower distress;
especially via warfare. Since the Agricultural Revolution, human communities
have been constantly engaged in various forms of warfare promulgated by those “tall,
healthy male leaders.” Although Post AR charismatic political leaders have
always employed warfare as a means of assuring perpetual distress among upon
followers, the hallmark of recent political leadership has been their ability
to manufacture imaginary forms of “distress” and disguise their effectiveness
and efficiency at relieving those forms of distress. In the United States we
now have an endless stream of declared and undeclared wars, including “war on
poverty,” the “war on drugs,” and the “war on terrorism.” The most important factor
in this most-recent militarization by large-scale political leadership has been
the emergence of fast-paced, effective/efficient information technologies; and
the resulting re-emergence of charisma as both a necessary and sufficient condition
for political leadership, and the skills necessary of organizational leaders to
manipulate charisma to their own political advantage. Thus large scale charismatic
political leaders today have become increasingly effective/efficient at
manipulating follower distress via information technology. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Conclusion<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">This essay has suggested that charismatic
leaders have always been both “born and made.” During the Pleistocene Era charismatic
leadership was irrevocably contextual; based on the observable possession of the
traits and skills that were necessary group survival. Tall, fit, males signaled
effective/efficient leadership in the essential contexts of hunting, military
activity, and migration. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are still naturally
attracted to those “tall, healthy, older, males” even though those natural
attributes no longer signal competent leadership. Since the dawning of the
Information Revolution, those “tall, healthy, older males” discovered that the
ability to effectively communicate with followers has become an increasingly important
skill that large scale leaders must acquire. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">We all hope that that with
ever-increasingly effective/efficient modes of communication technology we
might someday acknowledge the fact that our natural leadership preferences and our
present-day leadership needs are mismatched. Perhaps we will, someday, be able
to transcend our natural preference for those “tall, healthy, articulate male
leaders” and elect political leaders that are more likely to be effective and
efficient, including more female leaders. But despite increasingly effective
and efficient modes of information technology, today’s political leaders, military
leaders, religious leaders, and business leaders are still overwhelmingly “tall,
fit, articulate males.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Admittedly, charismatic, male-dominant, organizational
leadership contributed to the survival of the human species for 3.5 million
years. However, since the dawning of the Agricultural Revolution other contexts
and leadership opportunities have become essential to human survival, beginning
with the knowledge and skills associated with horticulture and animal
husbandry. Today, it is not clear to what degree cultural education can override
our natural instinct for following those “tall, fit, articulate male leaders”
at the exclusion of less-attractive, less-articulate males and females. As
females continue to prove themselves to be effective, efficient, articulate
leaders in military, religious, business, and political contexts, there is hope.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally, we must not underestimate the role
that rapidly evolving mass media now plays in democratic politics. Some of the
most important, unresolved, political issues of today arise from the fact that charisma
can be readily manipulated via information conveyance technologies, especially via
social media. Ineffective and inefficient political leaders can now hide their
lack of effectiveness and efficiency behind a wall of misinformation and
disinformation. Consequently, political leaders today expend an inordinate
amount of time, energy, and resources manipulating information in pursuit of would-be
voters, campaign contributors, and campaign workers. Political skills now
include the ability to look good, and sound good in a thirty-second media
presentation; or in a televised debate with 10-20 other candidates. Global media
outlets, dutifully encourage perpetual political campaigning, while even newly elected
officials continue to pad their “war chests” and run for re-election. So how
might we go about restoring the democratic ideals of organizational
effectiveness and efficiency? Unfortunately, we can’t simply return to our
hunter-gatherer roots. That genie is out of the bottle. As noted earlier, many
leadership scholars now observe, that there is a worldwide epidemic of
ineffective, inefficient leadership.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
apparent inability and/or unwillingness of our corporate media to expose
ineffective, inefficient political leadership has serious implications for the
future of global democracy. Until we as followers demand more out of our
political leaders and the mass media, we can expect little change. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">References<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Buckner, William (2017) “Romanticizing the Hunter-Gatherer” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Quillette.com</i> 12/16/17 <o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Chaleff, Ira, (2009) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Courageous
Follower: Standing up to and for Our Leaders</i>, 3<sup>rd</sup> Edition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>San Francisco: Berret-Koehler. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Corning, Peter (2011) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Fair
Society and the Pursuit of Justice</i> (University of Chicago Press, Chicago)<o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Corning, Peter (2018) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Synergist
Selection: How Cooperation Has Shaped Evolution and the Rise of Humankind.</i>
(World Scientific Publishing, New Jersey)<o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">De Waal, Franz. (2005) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Our Inner
Ape: A Leading Primatologist Explains Why We Are Who We Are</i> (Riverhead
Books: 2005) <o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Giphart, Ronald and Mark van Vugt. (2018) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mismatch: How our Stone Age Brain Deceives Us Every Day And What We Can
Do About It.</i> (London:Robinson 2018)<o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Goethals, George R. and Georgia L.G. Sorenson ed. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Quest for a General Theory of Leadership. Edward Elgar</i>, UK and
USA.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Grabo, Alan, Spisak B and van Vugt, M. (2017) “Charisma as Signal: An
Evolutionary Perspective on Charismatic Leadership.” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Leadership Quarterly. </i></span></strong><a href="http://dx.doi.ord/10.1016/j.leaqua.2017.05.001"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Http://dx.doi.ord/10.1016/j.leaqua.2017.05.001</span></a><strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Guinn, Jeff. (2017) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Road to
Jonestown: Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple</i> (New York: Simon and Schuster)<o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Machiavelli, Nicolo. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Prince. </i>many editions. (First
published in 1532)<o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Mauratano, Antonio and Arsenault, Paul. “Charisma.” In: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Marturano, Antonio and Jonathan Gosling, eds.
(2008) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Leadership: The Key Concepts</i>
(London, Routledge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Murray, Gregg R. (2019) “Living in a Digital World with a Stone Age
Brain: What Could Go Wrong?” (in) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Caveman
Politics</i>. (Psychology Today Blog: April 21, 2019)<o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Peterson, Steven A. and Albert Somit, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Handbook
of Biology and Politics</i> </span></strong><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">(Edward Elgar Press: 2017)</span><strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Ryan, Christopher and Cacilda Jethá. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of
Modern Sexuality</i> (Harper 2010)<strong><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></strong></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Somit, Albert and Steven Peterson, (1997) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Darwinism, Dominance, and Democracy</i>: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the Biological Bases of Authoritarianism</i> (New York, Praeger)<o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Sontag, Michael, Paul Jenkins, and Ronald F. White, “Leadership Ethics:
An Emerging Academic Discipline.” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Choice
Magazine</i> (October 2011). <o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "&quot" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "&quot" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Sunstein,
Cass R.; Thaler, Richard (2008). <i>Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health,
Wealth, and Happiness</i>. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "&quot" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Sunstein,
Cass R. (2013). <i>Simpler: The Future of Government</i>. New York: Simon &
Schuster. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "&quot" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "&quot" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Sunstein, Cass R. (2014). <i>Why Nudge?: The Politics of
Libertarian Paternalism</i> (The Storrs Lectures Series). Yale University
Press. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "&quot" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Sunstein,
Cass R. (2016) <i>The Ethics of Influence: Government in the Age of Behavioral
Science</i>. New York, Cambridge University Press, </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "&quot" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Sunstein,
Cass R. (2017) <i>Human Agency and Behavioral Economics: Nudging Fast and Slow</i>
(Palgrave Advances in Behavioral Economics) Switzerland: Palgrave McMillan. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Toland, John (1976) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Adolph Hitler</i> (Vol.1&2) (New York:
Anchor Books) <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">van Vugt, M., Hogan, R., Kaiser,
R. (April, 2008). Leadership, followership, and evolution: some lessons from
the past. <i>American Psychologist</i> 63 182-96.</span><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
van Vugt, M. 2006. Evolutionary origins of leadership and
followership. <i>Personality and Social Psychology Review</i> 10,
354-371. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
van Vugt, M and A. Ahuja (2011) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Naturally
Selected: The Evolutionary Science of Leadership.</i> New York: Harper
Business. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
van Vugt, M. 2012. The nature in leadership: evolutionary, biological, and
social neuroscience perspectives’ (in) Day, D.D & Antonakis J.
(eds), <i>The Nature of Leadership</i>, ( 2<sup>nd</sup> ed.) Los
Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore, Washington DC: Sage Publications,
141-178. <o:p></o:p><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Weber, Max. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Economy and Society</i> Berkeley: University of California Press (1978)
<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">White, Ronald F. “<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Political Behavior and Biology: Leadership
and Followership<i>”(in) Handbook on Biology and Politics</i> ed. Al Somit and
Steve Peterson. (Edward Elgar Press: 2017)<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">White, Ronald F. “Cass R. Sunstein’s Nudge Science: Ethics, Influence,
and Public Policy” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Politics and the Life
Sciences</i> (2018).<o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">White, Ronald F. “Toward an Integrated Theory of Leadership: A Review of
Mark van Vugt and Anjana Ahuja, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Naturally
Selected: The Evolutionary Science of Leadership</i>” (New York: HarperCollins,
2011<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">)</span> Politics and
the Life Sciences. Vol. 30 no. 1. pp. 116-121 <o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Wrangham, R. and Peterson, D. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Demonic
Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence</i> (Free Press, 1997)<o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<br />Freedom's Philosopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15412573018531100508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-409227712629702891.post-68033529202870736592019-08-28T07:55:00.003-04:002019-09-16T06:42:17.116-04:00Ron White's Schedule: Fall 2020 Semester<br />
<div class="MsoTitle" style="text-align: center;">
<b>Mount St. Joseph University</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle" style="text-align: center;">
S1-20<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .75in;">
<b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .75in;">
<b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Name:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b><u><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>Ronald F. White<span style="mso-tab-count: 10;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 1.25in;">
<b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Home Address:</span></b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><u><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>2708 Cyclorama Drive, Cincinnati, OH, 45211</u><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 1.25in;">
<b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Home/Cell Phone:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></b><u><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>513-633-1951<span style="mso-tab-count: 10;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-insideh: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-border-insidev: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;">
<tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 112.3pt;" valign="top" width="150"><div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Monday<o:p></o:p></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 112.3pt;" valign="top" width="150"><div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Tuesday<o:p></o:p></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 112.3pt;" valign="top" width="150"><div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Wednesday<o:p></o:p></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 112.3pt;" valign="top" width="150"><div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Thursday<o:p></o:p></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 112.3pt;" valign="top" width="150"><div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Friday<o:p></o:p></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 112.3pt;" valign="top" width="150"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">9-10
AM: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">OFFICE:
ADM 19<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">10-10:50
AM: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">PHI
205<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">CL
101<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">11-11:50
AM<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">ETH-PHI
397<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">CL
101</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 112.3pt;" valign="top" width="150"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">7-8
AM<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">OFFICE:
ADM 19<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">8-9:15
AM<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">ETH-PHI
250<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">CL
203<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">9:25-10:40
AM<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">PHI
200<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">CL
203<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">10:45-11:15
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">OFFICE:
ADM 19<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 112.3pt;" valign="top" width="150"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">9-10
AM: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">OFFICE:
ADM 19<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">10-10:50
AM: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">PHI
205<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">CL
101<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">11-11:50
AM<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">ETH-PHI
397<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">CL
101</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 112.3pt;" valign="top" width="150"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">7-8
AM<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">OFFICE:
ADM 19<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">8-9:15
AM<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">ETH-PHI
250<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">CL
203<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">9:25-10:40
AM<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">PHI
200<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">CL
203<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">1</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">0:45-11:15</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">OFFICE:
ADM 19<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 112.3pt;" valign="top" width="150"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">9-10
AM: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">OFFICE:
ADM 19<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">10-10:50
AM: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">PHI
205<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">CL
101<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">11-11:50
AM<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">ETH-PHI
397<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">CL
101</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />Freedom's Philosopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15412573018531100508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-409227712629702891.post-63736783655781213742019-08-06T09:12:00.002-04:002019-08-06T09:12:37.607-04:00Krell, David Farrell. The cudgel and the caress: reflections on cruelty and tenderness. SUNY Press, 2019. 340p index ISBN 9781438472973, $95.00<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: sans-serif, Arial, Verdana, "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 13px;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: sans-serif, Arial, Verdana, "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 13px;">Reviewed for </span><i style="color: #333333; font-family: sans-serif, Arial, Verdana, "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 13px;">Choice Magazine by </i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: sans-serif, Arial, Verdana, "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 13px;">Ronald F. White, Ph.D.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: sans-serif, Arial, Verdana, "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: sans-serif, Arial, Verdana, "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 13px;">This scholarly book documents the author’s “reflections” on the themes of “cruelty and tenderness.” His reflections have been shaped by years of scholarly research in Continental (German and French) philosophy, literature, poetry, and psychoanalysis. </span><em style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: sans-serif, Arial, Verdana, "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 13px;">Part One</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: sans-serif, Arial, Verdana, "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 13px;"> (Ch. 1-6) explores “Tenderness”; </span><em style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: sans-serif, Arial, Verdana, "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 13px;">Part Two</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: sans-serif, Arial, Verdana, "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 13px;"> (Ch. 7-10) covers “Cruelty.” This “reflection” includes references to: Sophocles, Aristotle, Kant, Holderlin, Schelling, Hegel, Heidegger, Freud, Schlegel, Nietzsche, and Derrida. Because this book documents the evolution of the author’s scholarly interpretation of so many authors, it generates enormous complexity. It’s Introduction (7 pages) does little to decode this complexity. The narrative is also rife with italicized terms in both German and French languages. The intended audience for this book is extraordinarily narrow; scholarly specialists dedicated to the history of Continental philosophy, literature, poetry, and psychoanalysis. Critics will observe that there is no attempt to broaden the book’s scholarly appeal by integrating the recent findings of the social science(s) and/or biology. This scholarly book is too narrowly focused and technical for popular audiences, undergraduate students, or graduate students. If you already know what a “cudgel” was used for, and how it relates to cruelty, you might appreciate this reflection. </span>Freedom's Philosopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15412573018531100508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-409227712629702891.post-41209784697354309262019-06-25T09:21:00.002-04:002020-01-24T14:29:08.100-05:002020 IPSA Conference Proposal<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 107%;"><b>Accepted Proposal for the 2020 International
Political Science Association Meeting </b><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 107%;">Lisbon, Portugal</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 107%;">July 25-29, 2020</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 107%;"><b>Competition and Cooperation Within
and Between Macro and Micro Political Organizations: Local, State, Regional, National, Multinational, and Global Leadership</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>Organized by:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Ronald F. White, PhD.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Professor of Philosophy</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mount
St. Joseph University</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21; font-family: inherit; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21; font-family: inherit; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Today, some of the most visible
and perplexing political conflicts arise within and between localism,
regionalism, nationalism, and globalism; and the complex legal and moral relationships
within and between those organizational structures. There are longstanding
arguments that support the primacy of one level over another, and/or the
authority of the various levels of political leadership. This research session
will explore some of the more recent worldwide political problems that arise
within various contexts, in the United States, Africa, and India. Issues will include
debates over women’s rights, access to health care, and the regulation of
therapeutic and/or recreational drugs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b> Chair and Commentator:</b> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Ronald F. White, Ph.D. </span><br />
<b style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;"><br /></b>
<b style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">Research Panel Presentations:</b></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background: rgb(242 , 243 , 245); color: #1c1e21; font-family: inherit; line-height: 107%;"><b>David Vanderburgh, MD</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Dayton, Ohio</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background: rgb(242 , 243 , 245); color: #1c1e21; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span>
<span style="background: rgb(242 , 243 , 245); color: #1c1e21; line-height: 107%;"></span></span><br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: rgb(242 , 243 , 245); color: #1c1e21; font-family: inherit; line-height: 107%;">The Regulation of the Cultivation, Importation, and Exportation of Medical Marijuana:The Ohio Experience</span></div>
</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background: rgb(242 , 243 , 245); color: #1c1e21; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span>
<span style="background: rgb(242 , 243 , 245); color: #1c1e21; line-height: 107%;">Abstract:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span>
<span style="background: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background: rgb(242 , 243 , 245); color: #1c1e21; font-family: inherit; line-height: 107%;">In the United States there has
been an ongoing debate over legal structures that ought to regulate the
cultivation, importation, exportation, and sales of therapeutic marijuana. The
most puzzling issues is whether it ought to be regulated by local, state,
federal governments. The State of Ohio recently legalized medical marijuana,
but controversy arose over who could legally grow it, who could legally sell
it, and who could legally buy it. The federal government has been reluctant to
legalize marijuana for either medical or recreational purposes, which has set
up multi-level political conflict between federal regulators, state regulators,
and local regulators. This presentation will focus on the multi-level political
conflicts that have arisen as a result of regulation of medical marijuana in
the United States, Ohio, Kentucky, and Cincinnati. </span><span style="background: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21; font-family: inherit; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21; font-family: inherit; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span>
<span style="background: rgb(242 , 243 , 245); color: #1c1e21; line-height: 107%;"><span style="background-color: #f1f0f0; color: #444950; font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Bonnie B. Chojnacki
Independent Scholar
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania</b>
</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background: rgb(242 , 243 , 245); color: #1c1e21; line-height: 107%;"><span style="background-color: #f1f0f0; color: #444950; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background: rgb(242 , 243 , 245); color: #1c1e21; line-height: 107%;"><span style="background-color: #f1f0f0; color: #444950; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rights, Culture, and Women’s Issues in India</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background: rgb(242 , 243 , 245); color: #1c1e21; line-height: 107%;"><span style="background-color: #f1f0f0; color: #444950; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background: rgb(242 , 243 , 245); color: #1c1e21; line-height: 107%;"><span style="background-color: #f1f0f0; color: #444950; white-space: pre-wrap;">Abstract:
</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background: rgb(242 , 243 , 245); color: #1c1e21; line-height: 107%;"><span style="background-color: #f1f0f0; color: #444950; white-space: pre-wrap;">
</span></span>
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background: rgb(242 , 243 , 245); color: #1c1e21; line-height: 107%;"><span style="background-color: #f1f0f0; color: #444950; font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">India consists of a variety cultural and religious traditions spanning ancient cultural, legal, and moral codes through its recent configuration as a political democracy. By population India is the world’s largest democracy with more than 1.3 billion people. Forty-eight percent of that population is female. Currently India’s legal system, modeled on the United States, combines common law within a written constitution. The written constitution is women friendly and includes a section on fundamental human rights. Paradoxically India figured prominently in recent a survey that ranked the most dangerous countries for women. From the survey India ranked first in three categories: attacks on women based on cultural traditions, sexual violence, and human trafficking. This presentation, drawing upon political philosophy, philosophy of law, and feminist theory, will explore tensions between India’s constitutionally granted fundamental rights for women, non-governmental agencies engaged in women’s development, and cultural influences which contribute to shaping women’s lives and opportunities.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span>
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background: rgb(242 , 243 , 245); color: #1c1e21; font-family: inherit; line-height: 14.2667px;"><b>John Amankwah, Phd</b></span><br />
<span style="background: rgb(242 , 243 , 245); color: #1c1e21; font-family: inherit; line-height: 14.2667px;"><b>Mount St. Joseph University</b></span><br />
<span style="background: rgb(242 , 243 , 245); color: #1c1e21; font-family: inherit; line-height: 14.2667px;"><b>Cincinnati, Ohio</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21;">Abstract:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background: rgb(242 , 243 , 245); color: #1c1e21; font-family: inherit; line-height: 14.2667px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #656565; font-family: "source sans pro" , "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background: rgb(242 , 243 , 245); color: #1c1e21; font-family: inherit; line-height: 14.2667px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #656565; font-family: "source sans pro" , "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">T</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #656565; text-align: left;">his paper will examine the rise of ethno-nationalism in Europe and North America at the height of Liberal democracy in the 21st Century. In the last twenty years, the world has been experiencing the rise of ethno-nationalism that purports to emphasize particular ethnic identity to the exclusion of the universal import of liberal democracy. While some scholars agree by arguing that liberal democracy thrives along the boundaries of ethno-nationalism, others have argued against this standpoint by pointing out that ethno-nationalism breeds isolationism and creates a particularistic view of liberal democracy that undermines the bedrock of democracy. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #656565; text-align: left;">I intend to approach this topic first by reviewing some scholarly literature that review and articulate the topic from different perspectives. Second, I intend to look at some of the domestic laws in particular Britain and United States and explore the landscape of the international law that focuses and privileges ethno-nationalism within liberal democracy. Third, I intend to apply a critical lens to the outcomes of the practice of ethno-nationalism and its effects on co-immigrants in Europe and United States and then draw my conclusion (to be continued).</span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background: rgb(242 , 243 , 245); color: #1c1e21; font-family: inherit; line-height: 107%;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-weight: 700;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #1c1e21; font-weight: 700;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><br />
<span style="background: rgb(242 , 243 , 245); color: #1c1e21; font-family: inherit; line-height: 14.2667px;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="background: rgb(242 , 243 , 245); color: #1c1e21; font-family: inherit; line-height: 14.2667px;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="background: rgb(242 , 243 , 245); color: #1c1e21; font-family: inherit; line-height: 14.2667px;"><b>Jennifer Morris, PhD</b></span><br />
<span style="background: rgb(242 , 243 , 245); color: #1c1e21; font-family: inherit; line-height: 14.2667px;"><b>Mount St. Joseph University</b></span><br />
<span style="background: rgb(242 , 243 , 245); color: #1c1e21; font-family: inherit; line-height: 14.2667px;"><b>Cincinnati, Ohio</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background: rgb(242 , 243 , 245); color: #1c1e21; line-height: 14.2667px;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;">The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in the Era of </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;">New Nationalism</span></span>
<span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21;">Abstract</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p> </o:p><span style="text-align: left;">In March of 2019, the United Nations Commission on the
Status of Women held its sixty-third session.</span><span style="text-align: left;">
</span><span style="text-align: left;">The priority themes included social protection systems, access to public
services and sustainable infrastructure for gender equality, and the
empowerment of women and girls.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">This
Commission, established first in 1946 at the beginning of the modern era of
globalization, has collected data on the lives of women that has been used to
illustrate the gender disparities that continue to plague women to the present
day.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">While the discussions at the March
session led to resolutions that align with the United Nation Sustainable
Development Goals and focus on empowering women and girls throughout the world,
these resolutions are facing increasing challenges on the national and local
level as more and more nationalist movements result in the election of
authoritarian leaders who have demonstrated no interest in gender equity. This paper
will examine the ways in which women in the United States, Poland, and
Venezuela have fared during this rise of new nationalism.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">Access to education, health care, and
employment are all in jeopardy as women and girls are increasingly shut out of
the electoral process, and are subsequently subjected to living in countries
where laws are passed that relegate them to less than full citizenship.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">And, while there are new aspects to this 21</span><sup style="text-align: left;">st</sup><span style="text-align: left;">
century situation, there are many ways in which the experience of women and
girls can be compared to those under 19</span><sup style="text-align: left;">th</sup><span style="text-align: left;"> and 20</span><sup style="text-align: left;">th</sup><span style="text-align: left;">
century nationalist authoritarian regimes.</span><span style="text-align: left;">
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<span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21;"><b>Ken Blanchard, Ph.D</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #f1f0f0; white-space: pre-wrap;">Evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar’s Social Brain Hypothesis proposes strong correlations between brain size and social group size across a range of primate species, including humans. This hypothesis predicts a social group size of 150 for Homo Sapiens (Dunbar’s Number); however, human beings coalesce and dissolve into larger and smaller groups. The size of these groups is not random but rather quantum, scaling up from five by a factor of approximately three with each layer. I propose that Dunbar’s hypothesis can be mapped onto accounts of human communities in both classical and modern political philosophy. In particular, I will focus accounts in Aristotle’s Politics and Locke’s Second Treatise. My hypothesis is that the Social Brain Hypothesis not only universal features of human political communities but also the remarkable flexibility of larger social groups that made the rise of civilizations possible.</span></span></div>
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<br />Freedom's Philosopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15412573018531100508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-409227712629702891.post-24197885681379941852019-05-30T09:17:00.001-04:002019-05-30T09:17:11.205-04:00Liberty and the Childhood Measles Vaccine ControversyIn recent months there has been an ongoing controversy over the measles vaccine and whether it should be legally mandated or not. Public policy on childhood vaccines raises the classic moral conflict between Liberty and Utility. Several other issues contribute to that debate, including: the moral status of children, responsibility of parents, competent research ethics, and role of physicians and other health care professionals in forging public policy.<br />
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Vaccines for childhood diseases such as measles, mumps, rubella, influenza provide children with the opportunity to avoid contacting these diseases. Over time, with the advancement of Science, the number of childhood immunization possibilities has increased substantially. The most important public policy issues today include which, if any, vaccines should be voluntary (subject to parental consent) or mandatory (subject to local, state, or federal laws). Although I won't cover the following issues in this blog, we might also question how effective the FDA is at regulating vaccine research, the high cost of vaccinations, and who pays that price and why?<br />
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In all Liberty-Utility conflicts libertarians side with "liberty," unless the adult chooser is demonstrably incompetent. If an adult is misinformed by third parties, the mantra is always "buyer beware." That means that we all must be wary of both public and private information (and misinformation) filtered though public and private institutions, including the mass media. In parental decisions involving the welfare of children, libertarians tend to defer decision-making to rational/competent parents over the state and/or the medical profession. They also argue that (in general) any reference to "utility" or the "greater good" tends to mask relationships of power that advance the interests government and/or corporations. Worldwide, the pharmaceutical industry is among the the most profitable, and the most politically powerful. Much of it's power can be traced to it's highly effective marketing strategies and it's generous support of pharma-friendly politicians.<br />
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Therefore, libertarian-based public policy on vaccines gives parents the right to decide whether or not to vaccinate their children along with the responsibilities that accompany that decision. Some parents will take this responsibility seriously and look into the scientific research that establishes both safety and effectiveness. Other parents will simply believe what the media and/or other sources say. Authorities might include: governmental institutions like the FDA, religious authorities, and health care authorities, especially physicians.<br />
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In the case of the ongoing measles epidemic at schools, libertarian parents reserve the right to send their children to whatever schools they choose. That choice would include public or private schools that require vaccinations and those that do not. If you send your kid to a school that does not mandate vaccinations, and if your child contracts the measles, then you alone must pay the price in terms of time, energy, and resources. If you choose to vaccinate your child and he/she suffers from known (or unknown) side-effects you are also responsible. In the final analysis, the free market will determine whether childhood vaccines are worth the cost.<br />
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Before the measles vaccine was invented, measles infected entire schools. Many years ago, I missed a week of school with measles and later with chicken pox and got to stay home and watch daytime TV with my mother. Other kids were hospitalized and some students died,, although I didn't know them. I also contracted the flu every year until the flu vaccine was invented. I haven't had the flu in many years, despite the fact that I have contact with about 300 students a year. Both of my children and my grand daughter were vaccinated for a variety of childhood diseases including measles and influenza. No one forced us. <br />
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Freedom's Philosopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15412573018531100508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-409227712629702891.post-29623040349664583442019-05-10T08:29:00.000-04:002019-07-26T16:50:10.934-04:00Cass R. Sunstein, On Freedom (Princeton University Press: 2019)<br />
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<span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Review for</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><i>Politics and the Life Sciences.</i></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Cass R.
Sunstein, <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><i>On Freedom</i></span> (Princeton
University Press: 2019)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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127 pp. <span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">ISBN: 978-0-691-19115-7. Hardcover $12.95.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Ronald F, White, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy, Mount
St. Joseph University.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Areas of Expertise: Social and Political Philosophy,
Ethics<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Cass R. Sunstein is
founder and director of Harvard University’s Program on Behavior Economics and
Public Policy. He is also a world-renowned legal scholar, and an
extraordinarily prolific author. He is best known as the co-author (with
Richard H. Thaler) of the best-selling book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nudge:
Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness</i> (2009). Since then,
Sunstein has authored and/or co-authored countless journal articles and at
least three other books that reiterate, and/or expand upon what Sunstein and
Thaler originally referred to as “Libertarian Paternalism.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those three books include: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Why Nudge: The Politics of Libertarian
Paternalism</i> (Yale: 2014), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Ethics
of Influence: Government in the Age of Behavioral Science</i> (Cambridge:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>2016); and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Human Agency and Behavioral Economics: Nudging Fast and Slow </i>(Palgrave
MacMillan: 2017). It is noteworthy that these three accounts of Libertarian
Paternalism build a common conceptual framework and cover similar ground. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Back in 2018, I contributed to a multi-authored
forum for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">PLS</i> that explored the
framework we entitled “Nudge Science.” (White 2018) This review will build upon
the conceptual framework explored in those review essays, especially my introductory
essay. Henceforth, I’ll refer to the collective content of those four earlier works,
as “Nudge Science.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">First of all, it is
important to note that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">On Freedom</i> is
a tiny, hard-cover book: 5 x 7 inches with 118 pages of narrative. And like all
of Sunstein’s books, it is well-crafted, easy-to- read, interesting, and targets
both scholarly and popular audiences. It is priced by Princeton University
Press at $12.95 and available at Amazon for $9.58. This review will address two
main questions. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">First</i>, how much of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">On Freedom</i> elaborates upon and/or
recapitulates the conceptual framework previously published in Nudge Science; and
how much (if anything) is altogether new and a worthwhile addition to that body
of work? <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Second, </i>in light of these first
two answers, who (if anyone) would be interested in this book and what (if
anything) would they get out of it? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Obviously, the title <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">On Freedom</i> is in direct reference to
John Stuart Mill’s classic work <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">On
Liberty</i> (1859), which is widely regarded as the primary source of anti-paternalism
within the Classical Liberal tradition. For Mill and his libertarian followers,
legally restricting the liberty of a rational, and competent adult, in order to
provide an unwanted benefit and/or prevent self-induced harm is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">a priori</i> unacceptable. Nudge Science
(including <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">On Freedom</i>) revisits that
argument and asks the question: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Under
what circumstances (if any) can a liberty-loving, self-governed society deploy
bans, mandates, and/or nudges to promote/advance the welfare of rational
competent adults without their consent? Nudge Science has consistently argued that
there is more room for paternalistic intervention within the Classical Liberal tradition
than most libertarians are willing to acknowledge. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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So how do we go about morally evaluating the ethics of governmental
actions? In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Ethics of Influence</i>,
Sunstein argued that government actions must be evaluated in light of four,
often-conflicting values. That is, by asking whether the action under
consideration…”increases <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">welfare</i>,
promotes <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">autonomy</i>, respects <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">dignity</i>, and promotes <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">self-government</i>.” (p. 53) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">On Freedom</i> focuses primarily on the moral
conflict between his principles of autonomy (freedom) and welfare conflict
(well-being).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mill and most Classical
Liberals argue that individual freedom of choice necessarily promotes human
well-being of both individuals and the collective. After all, rational,
competent adults would to be the best judge of what will or will not promote
our own well-being; and, therefore we be allowed to go our own way, so long as we
do not harm others. (p. 3) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">On Freedom</i>
challenges several key aspects of that libertarian argument. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Nudge Science reexamines freedom
of choice in light of the recent findings of social science, namely, that all
of our “choices” are influenced (if not determined) by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">choice architecture</i>, erected by either Mother Nature, and/or by
individuals and groups within our socio-political environment. Our vulnerability
to the influence of competing choice architects has been enhanced by
advancements in behavioral economics, especially the discovery of “behavioral
biases” and other fallacies that predispose us to make choices based on
pre-determined patterns, including <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">present
bias</i> (our natural tendency to pursue our immediate, short-term personal
well-being, often at the expense of our long-term well-being. So, whether we are
consciously aware of it or not, we are constantly being “nudged,” often by competing
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">choice architects</i>. Not all of those
architects seek to advance our personal welfare. Many nudge us one way or
another in order to benefit themselves, their family, and/or friends. Sunstein
argues that, if all of our choices have been nudged by choice architects, and
if many of those nudges are hostile to our welfare, then welfare advancing political
nudges are, obviously, morally <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>preferable to welfare invading nudges. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">On Freedom</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">, therefore,
argues that under conditions of self-government, the state can (and ought to)
nudge us toward advancing our personal welfare. But this raises a number of
longstanding libertarian issues. How can well-meaning choice architects know
whether their paternalistic interventions will (in fact) advance our well-being?
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sunstein argues that the value of
welfare enhancing nudges can only be assessed by the intended beneficiary. But
when? Before the benefits are experienced or after? If “after,” how long
after?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus Sunstein points out that the
“as judged by themselves” principle contains hidden complexities. For example, prior
to being nudged, drug and alcohol addicts might object to being nudged away
from those freedom-reducing addictions, but most of us would not, subsequently,
object to having been nudged away from those addictions, and/or having been nudged
toward eating healthy foods, exercising regularly, donating our organs, or
saving toward retirement. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">So<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>what, if anything, does <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">On
Freedom</i> contribute to the lexicon of Nudge Science? Sunstein introduces two
innovative features: one is stylistic, the other more substantive.
Stylistically, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">On Freedom</i> is different
from his earlier books, in that he employs several expository case studies to
reveal hidden complexities. He also uses several illustrative examples drawn
from classic literature. His recent interest in drawing upon works of popular
culture is reflected in another recent best-selling book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The World According to Star Wars </i>(2016).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Neither of these stylistic innovations are particularly
problematic. However, at least some scientists and philosophers will be
less-than enthusiastic about his expository references to the arts and
humanities. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">On Freedom</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">’s
more substantive innovation consists in introducing a new set of “navigational
metaphors” intended to clarify and/or expand upon his earlier “architectural
metaphors.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As Sunstein put it:
“Obstacles to navigability have been the great blind spot in the Western
philosophical tradition?” (p.2) Therefore, the over-riding question addressed
in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">On Freedom</i> is whether the
institutions of democratic government can effectively help us navigate through
the architectural maze of modern life without violating our personal autonomy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He argues that the effectiveness of our
individual pursuit of well-being requires more than freedom of choice. We must
also be able to “navigate” our way through an ever-growing maze of
architectural variables. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">At first glance, Sunstein’s
navigational metaphors, such as “navigation” and “navigators,” seem to elucidate
Nudge Science. Suppose, based on my own current interests, I decide to take a
vacation in Hawaii.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know where I want
to go, but lack the navigational knowledge/skills necessary to get there. Thus,
I might willingly choose to employ an airplane pilot, rather than, say a cruise
ship pilot. But to what degree does life in general resemble a voyage?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The expanded use of navigational metaphors suggest
that life is about “going somewhere,” (either literally or figuratively); that
we know where we want to go; and that we willingly employ skilled navigators to
help us get there. So far, so good. However, the closer we look at these
navigational metaphors, knowledge problems arise. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After all, there are (in fact) more-skilled
and less-skilled navigators, and we do not always know how to distinguish between
the two. Even if our chosen navigators are (in fact) skilled, we may not know
whether they intend to employ their navigational skills in order to advance or
undermine our individual welfare and/or the welfare of others. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Those navigational metaphors
begin to break down when various kinds of institutionalized navigators (public/
private) not only nudge us toward our chosen destination, but also surreptitiously
choose “where we want to go.” Most of us would not object to be reminded of the
likelihood of volcanic activity, in Hawaii, which may or may not influence us
to change vacation plans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But those
metaphors irrevocably break down when that navigator possesses the knowledge
and ability to surreptitiously “nudge” us toward an alternative destination. To
what extent do those navigators violate our autonomy when they nudge us toward that
alternative destination, even if it might improve my well-being? Do those
actions contradict the very concept of a navigator? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Sunstein argues that in a
democratic society, navigators often violate our autonomy when they employ the
coercive power of legally enforced bans and mandates to increase our
self-regarding welfare interests. So while coercive bans and mandates can play
a role in a liberty-loving society, they must be limited to preventing harm to
others. However, according to Sunstein, welfare-enhancing nudges are
non-coercive, autonomy-preserving, and morally acceptable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, when that navigator violates our autonomy
by taking us places where we do not want to go, in order to advance our
personal welfare, we might subsequently prefer “by our own lights” that
alternative welfare-enhancing destination. Life can be either easy or difficult
to navigate, depending on choice architecture that underlies our choices.
Helpful choice architecture simplifies navigation. His overall claim is that
government can play a role in “nudging” us toward decisions that advance our
individual well-being.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">So what, exactly, does the
Sunstein’s use of navigational metaphors contribute to Nudge Science? Do those
metaphors elucidate or obfuscate the autonomy-welfare conflict? Most Nudge
Scholars will agree that, beyond the introduction of those navigational
metaphors, there is not a lot of new philosophical analysis and/or research
within its pages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pundits will question
whether mixing those “architectural” and “navigational” metaphors elucidates or
obfuscates Nudge Science. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">So despite the fact that
some critics will ultimately object to its stylistic and/or substantive
innovations, most audiences will appreciate and benefit reading <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">On Freedom</i>. Scholars who are actively
engaged in Nudge Science will appreciate it as an up-to-date summary of those four
previous works that comprise “Nudge Science.” Social scientists, philosophers, and
readers of popular science, who have not yet explored Nudge Science, will certainly
benefit from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">On Freedom</i>, as a concise,
well-written, up-to-date introduction. In the final analysis, although this
little book really does not break new scholarly ground, it will serve as a
brief, inexpensive, and well-crafted summary of the current state of Nudge
Science. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">References<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">C. R. Sunstein and R.
Thaler, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nudge: Improving Decisions about
Health, Wealth, and Happiness</i> (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">C.R. Sunstein, <i>Why Nudge: The Politics of
Libertarian Paternalism </i>(New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">C.R. Sunstein, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Ethics of Influence: Government in the
Age of Behavioral Science.</i> (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">C.R. Sunstein, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Human Agency and Behavioral Economics:
Nudging Fast and Slow</i> (Switzerland: Palgrave McMillan, 2017). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">C.R. Sunstein, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The World According to Star Wars</i> (New
York: Harper Collins, 2016) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">J.S. Mill, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">On Liberty</i> (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett,
1978), 1859; repr. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">R.F. White, Eliah J.
White, Charles Kroncke, Edward Sankowski, David Vanderburgh. “Cass R.
Sunstein’s “Nudge Science”: Ethics, Influence, and Public Policy” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Politics and the Life Sciences</i>, Volume
37, Issue 1, 2018, pp.113-. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">R.F. White, “An
Introduction to Nudge Science and the Ethics of Influence” (in) R.F. White
et.al “Cass R. Sunstein’s “Nudge Science”: Ethics, Influence, and Public
Policy” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Politics and the Life Sciences</i>,
Volume 37, Issue 1, 2018, pp.113-118. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Freedom's Philosopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15412573018531100508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-409227712629702891.post-64331064400425648222019-03-30T09:09:00.000-04:002019-03-30T12:05:21.466-04:00Playtime Politics: The Growing Mismatch Between Biology and Culture: Lecture Text<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 90%; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 36.0pt; line-height: 90%;"> </span><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;"><span style="font-size: large;">Playtime Politics:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
Growing Mismatch </span></span></b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Between Biology and Culture</span><span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></b>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Presented By:</span></span></b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 28.0pt; line-height: 90%;"> </span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">By Ronald F. White, PhD</span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 90%; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">Mount St. Joseph University<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;"><span style="font-size: large;">Cincinnati, Ohio</span><span style="font-size: 28pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 90%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;"> </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">I. Introduction<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">All human behavior is subject to both biological and
cultural evolution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Timelessly universal</i></b>,
inter-cultural behavior has a biological component. However, at least some
human behavior is highly variable and relative to specific times (historical
relativism) and specific cultures (cultural relativism). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">At all times and in all cultures, human children (and
adults) exhibit what we call “<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">play behavior</i></b>.” Evolutionary
psychologists explore the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">proximate</i></b> and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ultimate causation</i></b> of
timelessly universal childhood play behavior.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">Proximate
explanations for human play behavior address “how” children play and “how” our
modular brain facilitates it. Ultimate explanations answer “why” human children
play; and how children “ought” to play. Childhood play is also shaped not only
by the descriptive “facts” (how and why children play); but also prescriptive
values: how and why children <i>ought</i> to play. Prescriptive relativists
argue that values are transmitted within and between groups via teaching and
learning; and/or monitored and enforced via morality and/or legality.
Worldwide, playtime activity is regulated on the basis of cultural values often
embedded in religious tradition, which is monitored and enforced by both
authoritarian and democratic political regimes. Historical analysis suggests
that, over time, childhood play has become increasingly regulated by <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">legality</i></b>,
as evidenced by a worldwide explosion of regime-specific laws that regulate
how, where, when, and with whom children ought to play. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">In democratic regimes,
childhood play is most often legally regulated in terms of risk-taking.
Therefore, the primary question facing legal authorities and parents has
become: “At what point does permissive parenting become child abuse?” And "How safe
is safe?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">This presentation will explore the evolutionary
psychology childhood play. It will focus on the legal regulation of childhood
playgrounds; especially: ladders, swings, slides, monkey bars, teeter-totters, tunnels
and merry-go-rounds.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;">Well, Ron… can you explain how a 67 year old social
and political philosopher got interested in playground technology? Thanks for
asking. The primary impetus for my recent interest in playground technology was
the birth of my granddaughter, Eliana. My wife and I began taking her to
various playgrounds, where we began to notice which kinds of technologies she
enjoyed at various ages, and her gradual tendency to overcome, what she
perceived as bodily risks. Now, she is five years old and tells us which park
to take her to and which technologies she likes to play on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="line-height: 90%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;">II. What is Human Inquiry?</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 90%;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">Before we begin, let’s establish exactly what it is that we
are all doing here today at Clemson University. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">Evolutionary epistemologists would say that we are engaged in
a process that Charles Sanders Peirce called, “Human Inquiry.” Or to put it
simply, we are “asking questions and posing answers.” The products of inquiry
are belief and doubt. There are two broad forms of inquiry: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">descriptive
inquiry</i></b> (pursuit of what’s true and false) and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">prescriptive inquiry</i></b>
(pursuit of what’s good and bad). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Theories
are collective beliefs that answer one or both of these two broad questions. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">Both descriptive and prescriptive
theories serve three social functions: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">explanation</i>,
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">prediction</i>, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">contro</i>l of phenomena. Therefore, over the short-run and the
long-run, theories are judged to provide better or worse explanations, predictions,
and control. My discussion will focus on the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">biological </b>and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">cultural </b>explanations
of childhood playground technologies. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">At this point, it is important to
acknowledge that Peter Gray and other playtime scholars have been proponents of
evolutionarily-based explanations for child’s play. This essay will build upon Gray’s
playtime scholarship by incorporating the principles of evolutionary
epistemology AND the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mismatch Theory</i> recently
developed by my friend Mark van Vugt. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;">III. What is an Evolutionary Explanation?</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 90%;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 107%;">Darwinian
Evolutionary Theory provides scientific explanations for <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">complex adaptive systems</i></b>,
including both <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">biological systems</i></b> and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">cultural systems</i></b>. Darwin identified three
mechanisms<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">: <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 107%;"> </span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> Replication: </span></i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 107%;">(reproduction of sub-systemic
genes/ideas)</span></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i><span style="line-height: 107%;">Variation: </span></i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 107%;">(degree of differences between sub-systemic genes/ideas) </span></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i><span style="line-height: 107%;">Selection: </span></i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i><span style="line-height: 107%;">(</span></i></b><span style="line-height: 107%;">determination of which sub-systemic
variations (genes/ideas) survive or become extinct within various
environments)<i>.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 107%;">Consequently,
both biological and cultural systems can be explained in terms of the following
Darwinian criteria: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"> Systemic Stability</span></i></b><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> (</span>no change over time)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 107%;"> Systemic Evolution: </span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 107%;">(increased
complexity or progress toward survival)</span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i><span style="line-height: 107%;"> Systemic Devolution:</span></i></b><b><span style="line-height: 107%;"> </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 107%;">(decreased
complexity or regression toward extinction)<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 107%;">In sum, both
genes and ideas evolve within two kinds of environments: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">biological environments</i></b>
and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">cultural
environments</i></b>. Change within biological and cultural environments can be
explained in terms the Darwinian mechanisms of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">replication</i></b>, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">variation</i></b>,
and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">selection</b>. Thus, there are two
kinds of evolutionary explanations: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">biological
explanations</b> and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">cultural explanations</b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="line-height: 107%;">Biological explanations</span></i></b><span style="line-height: 107%;"> explain changes in biological
environments, including the human brain, in terms of the survival and/or
extinction of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">genes</i></b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Human <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">psychological phenomena </b>(feelings,
thoughts, and behaviors) are produced by the human brain, which is the product
of 3.5 million years of evolution. Therefore, the human brain and the
psychological phenomena that it generates, have evolved very slowly; so slowly
that it still closely resembles the brains of our hunter-gatherer
ancestors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="line-height: 107%;">Cultural explanations</span></i></b><span style="line-height: 107%;"> explain changes in cultural
environments in terms of the survival and/or extinction of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ideas</i></b> (memes, beliefs,
artifacts, and/or technologies). Ideas evolve within and between the brains of
individuals and/or groups of individuals. This can be a very rapid and
revolutionary process, in comparison to painstakingly slow biological
evolution. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 107%;">Hence,
scientific theories also evolve based on replication, variation, and selection
over time. Darwinian Evolutionary Theory has evolved significantly since the
1860s, most notably with the advent of genetic theory as a proximate
explanation for biological variation. And, of course, since 1900 genetic theory
(itself) has evolved significantly. Similarly, theories of childhood play have
evolved since the early 1900s. We all hope those theories evolve even more
after this conference. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 107%;">Mark van
Vugt and others argue that there has been a growing <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mismatch</i></b> between our <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">slowly-evolving
biology</i></b> (genes) and our <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">rapidly-evolving culture</i></b> (ideas).
Henceforth, I’ll refer to this as <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Biocultural Mismatch Theory</i></b>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 107%;">Biocultural
Mismatch Theory is rooted in human history. Today the vast majority of
anthropologists agree that the human species survived for about 3.5 million
years as hunter-gatherers. We know that they lived in small groups of less than
150 relatives and friends and that they migrated in search of food via hunting
and gathering. When they ran out of food, they simply moved onto greener
pastures (so to speak). Cultural evolution over that time period was very slow
if not negligible. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 107%;">With the
advent of the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Agricultural Revolution</i></b> (a mere 12,000 years ago) humans
settled down in specific geographical locations and replaced hunting with
animal husbandry and gathering with horticulture, both of which rapidly evolved
based on cultural evolution. Henceforth, cultural evolution became a more
salient variable in the survival and/or extinction of human populations. Today,
the most important historical questions involve distinguishing between
biologically-based and culturally-based human behaviors; and the resulting
biocultural mismatches. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 107%;">Some
biocultural mismatches are obviously <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">devolutionary</i></b>. The best example is
today’s mismatch between our enduring natural instinct to consume sugar and fat
AND our culture’s rapidly evolving sciences of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">husbandry</i></b> and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">horticulture</i></b>,
and the rapidly evolving technological innovations that accompany those
sciences. Let’s not forget the role that leaders and followers play in cultural
evolution, especially political leaders. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Government subsidies, for example, insure low
sugar and meat prices and higher levels of consumption. In the United States,
as a result, of this biocultural mismatch, we are now in the midst of an
epidemic of obesity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 107%;">Evolutionary
scholars disagree over whether all of today’s mismatched feelings, thoughts,
and behaviors are devolutionary; OR whether at least some of our modern
feelings, thoughts, and behavior have progressed; and whether it’s more
important for the human species to <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">survive</i> </b>or <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">thrive</i></b>. Would you rather
spend the day hunting and gathering food, or spend 2 hours eating steak,
potatoes, and salad at an expensive restaurant? Are your preferences today
shaped more by the desire to survive or thrive?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 107%;">In sum, over
time, mismatches often develop between our slowly evolving biology and our
rapidly evolving cultures. But, as noted, not all biocultural mismatches are
necessarily, devolutionary. Today not many Americans want to return to the
savanna and live our lives as Hunters and Gatherers. But then again, we do not
want the quality and duration of our lives to be negatively impacted by
obesity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">IV. What is an Evolutionary Explanation for Childhood
Playground Behavior? <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">Evolutionary explanations for playground
behavior invoke both proximate and ultimate theories. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="line-height: 90%;"><br /></span></i></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="line-height: 90%;">Proximate Playground Theories</span></i></b><span style="line-height: 90%;"> answer questions
of: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">how,
when, and where</i></b> children play at various times and places<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">. </i>Today, we can all go to a playground
and observe how our children and other children play, and the preferences that
they exhibit and express. Social scientists, study play much more rigorously. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 90%;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">Today, the social sciences (psychology,
sociology, history, political science, anthropology, and economics) generate
the most salient scientifically-grounded proximate theories of childhood play,
especially. Proximate Theories also reveal to playground scholars which kinds
of playground behavior are timelessly-universal and which kinds are relative to
time and place and vary between individuals, communities, and/or cultures. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;"><br /></span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="line-height: 90%;">Ultimate Playground Theories</span></i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="line-height: 90%;"> </span></i><span style="line-height: 90%;">answer questions of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">why</i></b>,
those timelessly universal feelings, thoughts, and behaviors, are timelessly
universal. Ultimate theories invoke biological theories, in order to identify
the long-term purpose of timelessly universal behavior. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 90%;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">Evolutionary psychologists employ Darwinian
evolutionary theory to ultimately explain <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">why</i>
children play at any given time or place. Play behavior that appears to be
timelessly universal is ultimately explicable in terms of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">biological evolution</i></b>.
Play that appears to be relative to individual children, or groups of children,
playing at various times in various places is proximately explicable via <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">cultural
evolution</i></b>. The fact that biological evolution is a very slow
evolutionary process and cultural evolution can be very fast and revolutionary
leads, inevitably, to <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">biocultural
mismatches</b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 90%;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">Social scientists question/answer (explain) how, when,
and where young children play at various times and places. Evolutionary
psychologists question/answer (explain) why at least some play behavior is
timelessly universal and how biocultural mismatches affect childhood play
today, how those mismatches effect long-term survival of the species, and how
to preserve and/or restore at least some of those biologically programmed
behaviors. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 90%;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">The most salient feature of all childhood playground
activity behavior is that it must be <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">fun</b>,
or pleasure inducing. If it’s not pleasurable, it’s not play. So how did
children during the Pleistocene Era, actually play?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 90%;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">Obviously, hunter-gatherer societies were socially organized
much different from contemporary societies. We know that male and female
children of different ages were “raised” by older and younger women, who also
bore the primary responsibility for gathering food. We also know that at a
certain age, male children were trained by adult males for both hunting and
warfare. By the way, there was more hunting than warfare. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 90%;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">Recent
anthropological evidence suggest that hunter-gatherer societies were polygamous,
and that children were widely regarded as public property. Monogamous
relationships were rare if not non-existent. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 90%;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">Hunter-gatherer societies politically organized
themselves based on leadership and followership. These were informal <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">meritocracies</i></b>
whereby the best hunters led hunting expeditions, the best warriors led during
warfare; and the best gatherers led food gathering. There were no formal, know-it-all
leaders. Leadership was contextual. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 90%;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">So how did children play during the Pleistocene Era?
Well, we know that relatively little time, energy, and resources were devoted
to raising and/or protecting children. Surveillance by adult females was
minimal, therefore, children of different ages (boys and girls) played together
with minimal adult supervision. Children learned <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">risk-taking</i></b> and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">risk-avoidance</i></b>
primarily by experience. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 90%;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">When hunter-gatherer societies migrated in search of “greener
pastures,” they obviously were limited in what they could carry along. They
certainly did not carry around manufactured playground equipment. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 90%;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 90%;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">However, we know that the same kinds of risky bodily
motions that today’s children enjoy on playgrounds were willingly replicated by
hunter-gatherer children: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">up/down, back/forth, in/out, around and
around</i></b>. Thus, young children naturally: climbed up/down trees, rocks,
and hills; swung back and forth on vines, went in/out of caves and or bodies of
water; slid down muddy river banks, and engaged in circular motion, (often
holding hands). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 90%;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">At all times and in all places, children (and adults)
naturally engage in play behavior that incorporates risky bodily movements;
especially: up/down, back/forth. In/out, and around/around. These pleasurable
bodily movements ultimately explain why children today are psychologically
attracted to various playground technologies. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 90%;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 90%; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;">Ladders</span></b><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;"> (up/down)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 90%; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;">Teeter-Totters</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;"> </span></b><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;">(up/down)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 90%; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;">Slides</span></i></b><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;"> (up/down)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 90%; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;">Swings</span></i></b><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;"> (up/down, back/forth)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 90%; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;">Monkey Bars</span></i></b><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;"> (up/down)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 90%; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;">Tunnels</span></b><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;"> (in/out)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 90%; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;">Merry-Go-Rounds</span></i></b><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;"> (around/around).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 90%;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 90%;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">In recent years, historians have noted significant
structural changes in the design and structure of playground technologies. Are
those recent changes matched or mismatched with those risky bodily motions that
have made playgrounds fun for young children? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 90%;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">Evolutionary psychologists explain why children are
attracted to risky playground technologies, and why and when adults began to legally
regulate risky playground behavior and playground technology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 90%; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">V. What Can Be Done?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 90%;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">So now that we know
that our culturally-based propensity for risk-averse childhood playground behavior
is mismatched with our biologically-based instinct for risk-taking, what can we
do, individually and collectively, to address the most devolutionary behavioral
mismatches?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 90%;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">The first step is to
determine what are the most risky playground technologies? Then we can decide
what we can do to minimize those risks without destroying the fun associated
with those technologies. These determinations are best conducted under the
guidance of Darwinian Cultural Evolution, or simply: trial and error. If we
initiate safety features that make playground technologies safer, and if young
children are still attracted to these technologies, then that’s “safe enough.” If
young children no longer have fun playing on these revised technologies, then
they are “too safe.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 90%;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">The question of
whether playgrounds ought to be legally regulated via <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">legal bans, legal mandates</i></b>
and/or <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">political nudges</i></b> is beyond the scope of this presentation.
However, are free to speculate in Section VI-C and VI-D.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 90%; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 90%; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">VI. Conclusions, Questions, and
Bibliography<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;">VI-A. Conclusions</span></b><span style="line-height: 90%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">Here
I’ll identify six general conclusions: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;"><br /></span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="line-height: 90%;">C-1</span></i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="line-height: 90%;">: </span></i><span style="line-height: 90%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All human
feelings, thoughts, and behavior are shaped by both <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Biological Evolution</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cultural
Evolution</i>. Feelings, thoughts, and behavior that are shaped primarily by biological
evolution are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">timelessly universal</i>.
Feelings, thoughts, and behavior that are shaped primarily by cultural
evolution are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">culturally relative</i> to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Time</i> (historical relativism) and/or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Place</i> (cultural relativism). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="line-height: 90%;">C-2:</span></i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="line-height: 90%;"> </span></i><span style="line-height: 90%;">Some human playground behavior is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">timelessly universal</i>, especially risky
play that involves bodily movement (back-forth, up-down, in-out, and around-around.)
Children are also naturally inclined toward self-directed play with both older
and younger playmates, and male and female playmates with minimal interference
by adults. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 90%;">C-3:</span></b><span style="line-height: 90%;">
Worldwide, playground technology reflects those natural instincts, including: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">swing-sets</i> (back-forth), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ladders</i> (up-down), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">slides </i>(up-down)<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">,
teeter-totters </i>(up-down) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">monkey bars</i>
(up-down), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">tunnels</i> (in-out) and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">merry-go-rounds</i> (around-around).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 90%;">C-4</span></b><span style="line-height: 90%;">:
Worldwide, at least some natural playground behavior has been misshaped by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">biocultural mismatches</i>. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 90%;">C-5:</span></b><span style="line-height: 90%;">
Today there is a growing mismatch between our children’s instinct to indulge in
risky, self-directed playground activity and authoritarian and our culturally
based to desire to keep them safe. Thus, today, playground technology and
playground behavior is legally regulated (via legal bans, mandates, and nudges)
by adult politicians in pursuit of childhood safety.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 90%;">C-6:</span></b><span style="line-height: 90%;">
There are things that we can do to lessen bodily risk without sacrificing fun. The
best way to make this determination is via trial and error.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">VI-B: Contemporary
Issues<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 90%;">CI-1</span></b><span style="line-height: 90%;">:
A what point do playgrounds become so safe, and so-adult-directed that they are
no longer fun for children? How safe is safe?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 90%;">CI-2:</span></b><span style="line-height: 90%;">
What role do legal patents and liability insurance play in generating playground
mismatches? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 90%;">CI-3:</span></b><span style="line-height: 90%;"> Is
there a growing mismatch between our children’s natural instinct to play with
both older and younger children, and both boys and girls AND our cultural
tendency to separate them?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 90%;">CI-4:</span></b><span style="line-height: 90%;">
Is there a growing mismatch between childhood psychology theories, and our age-based
educational system that segregates children of different ages and genders. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 90%;">CI-5:</span></b><span style="line-height: 90%;">
What is the future of outdoor playgrounds and the technologies that occupy
playgrounds? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 90%;">CI-6:</span></b><span style="line-height: 90%;"> If
outdoor (and indoor) play becomes increasingly risk-averse, how will the nature
and frequency of sedentary indoor childhood play be affected? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 90%;">CI-7:</span></b><span style="line-height: 90%;"> Will
video games replace outdoor playgrounds? What will be the short-term and
long-term consequences of regulating video games that emulate those bodily
motions? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 90%;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 90%;">CI-8: </span></b><span style="line-height: 90%;">Will
the “mismatch” between our children’s natural instinct for risky play and our increasingly
authoritarian, political culture continue to widen? If so, what will be the
short-term and long-term consequences?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 90%;">CI: 9: </span></b><span style="line-height: 90%;">Will
the “mismatch” between our natural instinct for voluntary cooperation and our
rapidly expanding culture toward coercive authoritarian politics continue to
widen? If so, what will be the long-term and short-term consequences?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 90%;">CI-10:</span></b><span style="line-height: 90%;"> Can
children ever be “safe enough?” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 90%;">CI-11:</span></b><span style="line-height: 90%;"> How
safe is safe?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">VI-C: Suggested Post-Lecture Discussion Questions<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">Based on your own personal lifetime experiences,
answer the following questions: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;">PLQ-1:</span></b><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;"> Have childhood playgrounds
changed significantly? If so, in what ways?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;">PLQ-2:</span></b><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;"> Have playgrounds become more
plentiful or less plentiful? Are they more fun or less fun?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;">PLQ-2:</span></b><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;"> Has the location of playgrounds
changed significantly? Are most playgrounds on public or private property? What
are the future implications?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;">PLQ-3:</span></b><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;"> Have the various playground
technologies changed significantly? What technologies have changed the most:
tunnels, swings, teeter-totters, monkey bars, merry-go-rounds?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 90%;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;">PLQ-4</span></b><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;">: What are the most recently
invented playground technologies? What is the future of zip-lines? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;">PLQ-5</span></b><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;">: Has the age of children that still
play on playgrounds changed significantly?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 90%;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;">PLQ-6:</span></b><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;"> Has the nature and/or extent of
adult supervision of children on playgrounds changed significantly? How has
that affected the fun factor?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 90%;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;">PLQ-7:</span></b><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;"> How does the psychology of
risk-taking explain other playtime technologies such as video games and
amusement parks? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 90%;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;">PLQ-8</span></b><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;">: Today, are there other
mismatched human behaviors that have been affected by our ongoing intolerance
for risk-taking? Which ones are devolutionary, and why?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 90%; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 90%; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;">X. Bibliography</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 90%;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 90%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 90%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;">Giphart, Ronald and Mark van
Vugt, <i>Mismatch: How our Stone Age Brain Deceives Us Every Day And What we
Can Do About It </i>(Robinson: 2015)</span><span style="line-height: 90%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 90%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 90%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">Gray, Peter, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our
Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life.</i> Basic
Books, 2013. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 90%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 90%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">Gray, Peter. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Decline of Play </i>(2014)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg-GEzM7iTk&sns=em">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg-GEzM7iTk&sns=em</a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">, </i>accessed on December 30, 2018<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 90%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;">Gray, Peter Ancestral
landscapes in human evolution: Culture, childrearing and social wellbeing</span></i><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 90%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 90%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">Johnson, and James E. Johnson,
Scott G. Eberle, Thomas S. Henricks, David Kuschner, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Handbook of the Study of Play.</i> Volumes 1 and 2. (Rowman &
Littlefield: 2015)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 90%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 90%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">Lange, Alexandra. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Design of Childhood: How the Material
World Shapes Independent Kids</i> (Bloomsbury Publishing: 2018)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 90%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 90%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 90%;">Kroncke, Charles and Ronald F.
White, “Bibliography of the Study of Play.” <i>Choice Magazine </i>(Forthcoming)</span><span style="line-height: 90%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 90%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">Narveson, Jan. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">You and the State: A Short Introduction to Political Philosophy </i>(Rowman
and Littlefield: 2008)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 90%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 90%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">Peirce, Charles Sanders. “The Fixation of
Belief” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">Sunstein, Cass R. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">On Freedom</i> (Princeton University Press: 2019)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 90%;">Sunstein, Cass R. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Why Nudge:</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Politics of
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<br />Freedom's Philosopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15412573018531100508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-409227712629702891.post-52937292860342566132019-03-30T09:04:00.000-04:002019-03-30T12:15:45.244-04:00Playtime Politics: The Growing Mismatch Between Biology and Culture: PowerPoint Lecture<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Freedom's Philosopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15412573018531100508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-409227712629702891.post-10456755732269051872019-03-29T14:29:00.001-04:002019-03-30T09:30:52.012-04:00 Playtime Politics: The Growing Mismatch Between Biology and Culture <br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-size: x-large; line-height: 90%;"><b>Playtime Politics: The Growing Mismatch Between Biology and Culture </b></span><br />
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<b><span style="line-height: 90%;"> </span></b><span style="color: #990000; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 90%;">Presented By: </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-size: large;"><b><span style="line-height: 90%;"> Ronald F. White, </span></b><b>PhD</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 90%;">Mount St. Joseph University, </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 90%;">Cincinnati, Ohio</span></b></span></h4>
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<span style="line-height: 90%;"><span style="color: #990000;">Lecture Presented For:</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="line-height: 90%;"><span style="color: #990000; font-size: x-large;"> The 10th Anniversary Conference</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="line-height: 90%;"><span style="color: #990000;">on the Value </span></span></b><b><span style="line-height: 90%;"><span style="color: #990000;">of </span></span></b><b><span style="line-height: 90%;"><span style="color: #990000;">Play: </span></span></b><b><span style="line-height: 90%;"><span style="color: #990000;">Play for Life</span></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 90%;">Monday April 1, 2019</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 90%;"><br /></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 90%;">10:30-11:20 AM</span></b><b><br /></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 90%;">Boardroom</span></b></span></h2>
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<b><span style="line-height: 90%;"><span style="color: #990000; font-size: large;">PowerPoint Lecture <a href="https://freedomsphilosopher.blogspot.com/2019/03/playtime-politics-growing-mismatch_30.html" target="_blank">(Click Here)</a></span></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 90%;"><span style="color: #990000; font-size: large;">Lecture Text <a href="https://freedomsphilosopher.blogspot.com/2019/03/playtime-politics-growing-mismatch_65.html" target="_blank">(Click Here)</a></span></span></b></div>
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<br />Freedom's Philosopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15412573018531100508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-409227712629702891.post-30304993934153745932018-08-13T08:12:00.000-04:002018-08-13T08:12:11.604-04:00Review of Mary L. Hopcroft, ed. The Oxford Handbook of Evolution, Biology, and Society (Oxford: 2018)
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Mary L. Hopcroft, ed. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Oxford Handbook of Evolution, Biology, and So</i>ciety (Oxford: 2018)</div>
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Reviewed for <em>Choice Magazine</em> by Ronald F. White<o:p> </o:p></div>
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In recent years there has been growing interest among scholars
in the evolutionary foundations of collective human behavior. Although the institutional
orthodoxy in the social sciences remains resistant to interdisciplinary analysis,
there are many heterodox scholars now engaged in biosocial research. This most
recent addition to Oxford University Press’s “handbook,” series is a 681 page
tome, which includes 29 scholarly articles by 38 authors, from around the
world, mostly from the U.S. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These essays
are organized under six headings or “parts.” Part 1: Introduction (4 essays), Part
2: Social Psychological Approaches (6 essays), Part 3: Biosociological
Approaches (9 essays), Part 4: Evolutionary Approaches (7 essays), Part 5:
Sociocultural Evolution (2 essays), and, Part 6: Conclusion (1 essay). Each
essay includes a useful bibliography. Many of the essays could be listed under
more than one heading. Although the four essays that comprise the Introduction
provide important context, the four-page conclusion is pretty thin,
predictable, and perhaps a bit disappointing. Anyone interested in this fine collection,
should also look into Edward Elgar’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Handbook
of Biology and Politics</i> (2017), edited by Somit and Peterson; and check out
the Association for Politics and the life Sciences, and its journal <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Politics and the Life Sciences</i>. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
Freedom's Philosopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15412573018531100508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-409227712629702891.post-35350386753757506742018-08-04T13:33:00.002-04:002018-08-08T10:57:55.871-04:00SuicideLike, the concept of "euthanasia," the concept of "suicide" carries with it a lot of ambiguity and social baggage. The word "suicide" is used (both legally and morally) to signify the "act of killing oneself," as distinct from being "euthanized by others." On the surface, suicide appears to be a purely self-regarding act, protected by the <em>liberty principle.</em> However, historically, other moral principles such as utility, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice have been invoked. Libertarians such as J.S. Mill have argued, that rational competent adults "own their bodies" and therefore have the right to end their lives without interference from others. However, there is often disagreement over whether any given person is rational/competent and/or whether any given decision by a seemingly rational/competent person is, in fact, rational/competent. Some philosophers have sought to identify the various context whereby a rational/competent adult might justifiably kill themselves for either self-regarding and/or other-regarding reasons. <br />
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Most egoistic utilitarians agree that the "good life" is marked by a <em>positive ratio</em> of pleasure over pain. Therefore, a rational/competent adult whose life consists of an intractable imbalance of excruciating pain over pleasure, has a right to kill himself. Two self-regarding problems emerge: At what point does extreme pain become objectively excruciating?" And, in light of modern medicine, at what point does temporarily intractable become permanently intractable? Pain and suffering is, obviously, subject to greater and lesser degrees of magnitude; and some individuals adapt to pain and suffering better than others. For better or worse, we also distinguish between "physical" and "psychological" pain. Both are invoked in the context of the justification of self-regarding suicide and/or suicide prevention. <br />
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Philosophers disagree over the justification of suicide. Kantians, argue that suicide is an abuse of freedom, and that we have a negative duty to refrain from killing ourselves, regardless of the presence of overwhelmingly negative pain-pleasure ratios. <br />
Most libertarians, in the J.S. Mill tradition agree that young children are neither rational nor competent, however they also acknowledge that cultures disagree as to when children become rational and competent varies... anywhere from 14 to 21 years. In the US, legal adulthood is contextual (and occasionally comicalL), with laws dictating at what point should children be allowed to drink, smoke, drive automobiles, vote, refuse medical treatment, or commit suicide? Unfortunately, many children commit suicide every year over minor, temporary psychological harms such as breaking up with boyfriends/girlfriends or bullying in school. Many young gays, lesbians, and transsexuals are also vulnerable. While we all agree that we have individual and collective duties to prevent teenage suicides, disagree over exactly who is responsible for intervening and how to intervene. Do teenage suicides signal parental and/or institutional neglect of that duty to prevent suicides? How much time, energy, and resources must beneficent parents expend paying for psychologists, psychiatrists, anti-psychotic drugs, and/or institutionalization of suicidal children? Should local, state, and/or federal governments contribute? If so, how much?<br />
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Age alone is does not, necessarily, signify rationality or competence; as many adults lack rationality due to the presence of short-term and long-term diseases that affect the human brain. Thus, many adults are over 21, but irrational and/or incompetent to perform various acts. In general I am a rational competent adult, but I am an incompetent airplane pilot. <br />
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The intractability of excruciating pain is relative to time and place. Since the early 20th century, opiates (and other drugs) have been successfully used to minimize pain and suffering. In China, Japan, and India other techniques have been developed to help those suffering from chronic pain learn to adapt to a life of pain. Today, many people commit suicide without trying a variety of pain relieving drugs, or ancient techniques such as yoga, transcendental meditation, or the various marshal arts. Thus, the question emerges: What do we do as beneficent individuals and/or as societies to prevent irrational/incompetent adults from needlessly killing themselves?<br />
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Not all rational/competent suicides are for self-regarding reasons. Other-regarding reasons for suicide include the desire to spare family, friends, and or society the emotional and/or financial harms that result from remaining alive. From both self-regarding and other-regarding perspectives, there are better and worse ways to kill oneself. Shooting oneself in the head, is very efficient and painless self-regarding way to kill oneself, but it leaves behind a mess that others have to see and/or clean up. Some of us attempt to kill ourselves via automobile wrecks, but inadvertently kill or injure others in the process. Others attempt suicide via drug overdoses, without knowing how many to take, and end up surviving the overdose, and having to live with drug induced disabilities, including persistent vegetative state. Sometimes surviving a suicide attempt ultimately subjects individuals, families, friends and society to even greater costs.<br />
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To the extent that at least some suicides are rational and competent, the ultimate question is whether the rest of us have either a positive right or a positive duty to assist or prevent others in committing suicide? If so, how much assistance is justifiable? At what point does suicide-assistance become euthanasia? Based on beneficence, do we have a paternalistic duty prevent all or some self-regarding and/or other-regarding suicides? At what point does paternalistic suicide prevention by family, friends, and or government undermine personal liberty? Freedom's Philosopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15412573018531100508noreply@blogger.com0