The Suparṇādhyāya or “The Tale of the Eagle” is a Sanskrit poem dating approximately to the latter part of the first millennium BCE. While the text itself does not become a significant part of the Sanskrit literary tradition, the story it tells does, though in forms preserved in other literature. This paper attempts to understand the purpose of the Suparṇādhyāya and the context for which it was composed. It argues that the text was originally created as an entertainment for young (...) brahmin males who were memorizing the Veda under the direction of a teacher in a Vedic school. It concludes that the text was recited during days off from Veda study not only as an entertainment, but also as an encouragement to continue that study and as an education in the power and importance of the texts the students were memorizing. (shrink)

This chapter focuses on the implications of economically self‐interested behavior by voters and lobbyists, rather than important issues of irredentism, demagoguery, and security. It also focuses on the political problems of liberalizing migration between poor and wealthy states. Economists often support temporary migration in order to guard against potential adverse effects of brain drain. International organizations can serve to engage in surveillance, communication, and adjudication in order to enforce rules. Responsibility for international economic migration could be assigned to an existing (...) organization or to a new organization. The chapter addresses the possible features of a new international organization addressing migration. It also describes the present migration‐related functions of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), International Labor Organization (ILO), and World Trade Organization (WTO). The ILO has broad experience in a variety of labor and migration issues, and its tripartite structure facilitates negotiations that involve the concerns of industry and labor. (shrink)

What possible allure can a Persian prophet hold for a philhellenic philosopher? "Zarathustra's Preposterous History" discusses the conspicuous heritage of Nietzche's figure, arguing that Nietzsche's turn to Zoroaster itself functions as an instance of affirmation, the difficult affirmation of even that which must be overcome. The self-overcoming that structures Also sprach Zarathustra comes to characterize the figure of Zarathustra itself, both within this book and in Nietzsche's later writings. But only through the preposterous imposition of this characterization can Nietzsche identify (...) Zarathustra with Zoroaster and portray the moralist as the necessary precursor to the immoralist. Inverting chronology, Nietzsche not only affirms that which must be overcome, but also demonstrates how one can master the past by making of the "it was" of history a "thus I willed it."Warum befasst sich ein philhellenischer Philosoph mit einem persischen Propheten? Dieser Aufsatz die augenfällige Erblast von Nietzches Figur und argumentiert, dass Nietzsches Wendung zu Zoraster selbst ein Beispiel der Bejahung abgibt, nämlich der schwierigen Bejahung dessen, was überwunden werden muss. Die Selbstüberwindung, die Also sprach Zarathustra strukturiert, charakterisiert ebenfalls die Zarathustra-Figur, sowhl in diesem Buch als auch in Nietzsches späteren Schriften. Aber nur durch die Rückübertragung dieser Charakterisierung kann Nietzsche Zarathustra mit Zoroaster identifizieren und den Moralisten als notwendigen Vorläufer des Immoralisten darstellen. Die Chronologie umkehrend, bejaht Nietzsche nicht nur das, was überwunden werden muss, sondern zeigt auch, wie man der Vergangenheit Herr werden kann, indem man aus dem "Es war" der Geschichte ein "So wollte ich es" macht. (shrink)

The Paippalādasaṃhitā of the Atharvaveda: Kāṇḍas 6 and 7. A New Edition with Translation and Commentary. By Arlo Griffiths. Groningen Oriental Studies, vol. 22. Groningen: Egbert Forsten, 2009. Pp. lxxxvi + 540.

This is the first book to offer the best essays, articles, and speeches on ethics and intelligence that demonstrate the complex moral dilemmas in intelligence collection, analysis, and operations. Some are recently declassified and never before published, and all are written by authors whose backgrounds are as varied as their insights, including Robert M. Gates, former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency; John P. Langan, the Joseph Cardinal Bernardin Professor of Catholic Social Thought at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown (...) University; and Loch K. Johnson, Regents Professor of Political Science at the University of Georgia and recipient of the Owens Award for contributions to the understanding of U.S. intelligence activities. Creating the foundation for the study of ethics and intelligence by filling in the gap between warfare and philosophy, this is a valuable collection of literature for building an ethical code that is not dependent on any specific agency, department, or country. (shrink)

The earlier volume in this series dealt with two religions of Indian origin, namely, Buddhism and Jainism. The Indian religious scene, however, is characterized by not only religions which originated in India but also by religions which entered India from outside India and made their home here. Thus religious life in India has been enlivened throughout its history by the presence of religions of foreign origin on its soil almost from the very time they came into existence. This volume covers (...) three such religions—Zoraoastrianism, Judaism, and Islam. In the case of Zoraostianism, even its very beginnings are intertwined with India, as Zoroastrianism reformed a preexisting religion which had strong links to the Vedic heritage of India. This relationship took on a new dimension when a Zoroastrian community, fearing persecution in Persia after its Arab conquest, sought shelter in western India and ultimately went on to produce India’s pioneering nationalist in the figure of Dadabhai Naoroji ( 1825-1917), also known as the Grand Old Man of India. Jews found refuge in south India after the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70 C.E. and have remained a part of the Indian religious scene since then, some even returning to Israel after it was founded in 1948. Islam arrived in Kerala as soon as it was founded and one of the earliest mosques in the history of Islam is found in India. Islam differs from the previously mentioned religions inasmuch as it went on to gain political hegemony over parts of the country for considerable periods of time, which meant that its impact on the religious life of the subcontinent has been greater compared to the other religions. It has also meant that Islam has existed in a religiously plural environment in India for a longer period than elsewhere in the world so that not only has Islam left a mark on India, India has also left its mark on it. Indeed all the three religions covered in this volume share this dual feature, that they have profoundly influenced Indian religious life and have also in turn been profoundly influenced by their presence in India. (shrink)

The earlier volume in this series dealt with two religions of Indian origin, namely, Buddhism and Jainism. The Indian religious scene, however, is characterized by not only religions which originated in India but also by religions which entered India from outside India and made their home here. Thus religious life in India has been enlivened throughout its history by the presence of religions of foreign origin on its soil almost from the very time they came into existence. This volume covers (...) three such religions—Zoraoastrianism, Judaism, and Islam. In the case of Zoraostianism, even its very beginnings are intertwined with India, as Zoroastrianism reformed a preexisting religion which had strong links to the Vedic heritage of India. This relationship took on a new dimension when a Zoroastrian community, fearing persecution in Persia after its Arab conquest, sought shelter in western India and ultimately went on to produce India’s pioneering nationalist in the figure of Dadabhai Naoroji ( 1825-1917), also known as the Grand Old Man of India. Jews found refuge in south India after the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70 C.E. and have remained a part of the Indian religious scene since then, some even returning to Israel after it was founded in 1948. Islam arrived in Kerala as soon as it was founded and one of the earliest mosques in the history of Islam is found in India. Islam differs from the previously mentioned religions inasmuch as it went on to gain political hegemony over parts of the country for considerable periods of time, which meant that its impact on the religious life of the subcontinent has been greater compared to the other religions. It has also meant that Islam has existed in a religiously plural environment in India for a longer period than elsewhere in the world so that not only has Islam left a mark on India, India has also left its mark on it. Indeed all the three religions covered in this volume share this dual feature, that they have profoundly influenced Indian religious life and have also in turn been profoundly influenced by their presence in India. (shrink)

Humans are learning agents that acquire social group representations from experience. Here, we discuss how to construct artificial agents capable of this feat. One approach, based on deep reinforcement learning, allows the necessary representations to self-organize. This minimizes the need for hand-engineering, improving robustness and scalability. It also enables “virtual neuroscience” research on the learned representations.

What inductive biases must be incorporated into multi-agent artificial intelligence models to get them to capture high-fidelity imitation? We think very little is needed. In the right environments, both instrumental- and ritual-stance imitation can emerge from generic learning mechanisms operating on non-deliberative decision architectures. In this view, imitation emerges from trial-and-error learning and does not require explicit deliberation.

Is the societal-level of analysis sufficient today to understand the values of those in the global workforce? Or are individual-level analyses more appropriate for assessing the influence of values on ethical behaviors across country workforces? Using multi-level analyses for a 48-society sample, we test the utility of both the societal-level and individual-level dimensions of collectivism and individualism values for predicting ethical behaviors of business professionals. Our values-based behavioral analysis indicates that values at the individual-level make a more significant contribution to (...) explaining variance in ethical behaviors than do values at the societal-level. Implicitly, our findings question the soundness of using societal-level values measures. Implications for international business research are discussed. (shrink)

Moderate rationalism is the view a person's having a rational intuition that p prima facie justifies them in believing that p. It has recently been argued that moderate rationalism requires empirical support and, furthermore, that suitable empirical support would suffice to convince empiricists to abandon their opposition to rationalism. According to one argument, the causal requirement argument, empirical evidence is necessary in order to justify the claim that any actual token belief is based on rational intuition and moderate rationalism requires (...) such a claim for its justification. According to a second argument, the reliability argument, empirical evidence is necessary in order to justify the claim that a putative source of evidence is reliable and moderate rationalism requires such a claim for its justification. According to a third argument, the empirical case argument, certain sorts of empirical evidence would be dialectically sufficient to resolve the traditional dispute between empiricists and rationalists in the rationalists' favor. Against the causal requirement argument, I maintain that the core doctrines of moderate rationalism are not hostage to causal claims and that such causal claims as may be plausibly part of other recognizably rationalist doctrines can be justified on broadly non-empirical grounds. Against the reliability argument, I show that no empirical evidence is required to justify belief in the reliability of rational intuition. Against the empirical case argument, I argue that the envisioned empirical support for moderate rationalism should not convince any traditional empiricist. (shrink)

No consensus yet exists on how to handle incidental fnd-ings in human subjects research. Yet empirical studies document IFs in a wide range of research studies, where IFs are fndings beyond the aims of the study that are of potential health or reproductive importance to the individual research participant. This paper reports recommendations of a two-year project group funded by NIH to study how to manage IFs in genetic and genomic research, as well as imaging research. We conclude that researchers (...) have an obligation to address the possibility of discovering IFs in their protocol and communications with the IRB, and in their consent forms and communications with research participants. Researchers should establish a pathway for handling IFs and communicate that to the IRB and research participants. We recommend a pathway and categorize IFs into those that must be disclosed to research participants, those that may be disclosed, and those that should not be disclosed. (shrink)