This chapter analyzes Aristotle’s criticism of dichotomous division, focusing especially on the first Book of the De partibus animalium. It argues that Speusippus, not Plato, is the direct target of this criticism, but that Aristotle also indirectly addresses a Platonic norm of division, explicitly argued in the Statesman and plausibly applied in the Sophist. The chapter contends that Aristotle and the Academics shared a common agenda on cross-cutting divisions and establishing norms for discovering essences, even while fundamentally disagreeing on method.

This chapter aims to provide an update on the research questions that guide generative linguistics as well as on the methodologies that synthesize the evidential basis of the field, reflecting three crucial dimensions: (i) the importance of having a theory, (ii) the relation between theory and measurements, and (iii) the results this coupling of theory and measurements has produced in the last three decades of generative research. Putting these three dimensions together, the discussion examines the answers that minimalism and the research that was developed on its basis offer with respect to how language works (behavior), through the experimental lens we have on its operation (observables), in the form of a principled approach to what has been measured, why so, and what are the adduced explanations (theory).

This chapter explores the meaning, function, and development of International Relations (IR) theory. It considers central questions, including: what constitutes theory? What are the principal types of theories? And why is theorising essential to the study of international relations, including in the context of the Middle East? The discussion is organised into four main sections. Section 1.1 addresses complex issues concerning the nature and purpose of theory, as well as its relationship to the empirical world. Section 1.2 contends that, although achieving metatheoretical consensus on the nature of theory and its connection to reality is highly unlikely, the practice of theorising remains both necessary and intrinsically political. Section 1.3 traces the disciplinary evolution of IR theory, highlighting its increasing self-reflexivity in line with related developments across the broader social sciences. Finally, in Section 1.4 the chapter examines the current state of theoretical fragmentation and pluralism within the field, concluding with reflections on the future trajectory of theorising in IR.

The conclusion offers an overview of the book’s central arguments. It first reflects on the development of Critical Ethical Naturalism (CEN) within a particular interpretation of Aristotle, showing how this alignment strengthens both its ethical content and its role within Cambridge Social Ontology (CSO). Situating CEN in this way provides a richer ontological grounding for understanding human flourishing and supports the broader project of reviving political economy on realist foundations. The discussion then revisits the comparison between CSO and Amartya Sen, highlighting that while both seek to integrate ethics and economics, they rest on contrasting ontological orientations. Sen’s reluctance to engage systematically with ontology produces conceptual ambiguities that limit the coherence of his framework. The conclusion also considers how Nussbaum’s and Robeyns’s liberal presuppositions reinforce these tensions. It closes by reaffirming the necessity of ontological inquiry for conceptual clarity, ethical critique, and the revival of political economy as a comprehensive social science.

This chapter proposes an approach to social science inquiry suited to the Iranian case and, more broadly, to the silences that constitute revolutionary mobilization and memorialization. With reference to a partial archive of interview data with people who experienced the mass uprisings of late 1978 and early 1979, and analytical statements they made in interviews about their experience of popular assemblies, the chapter shows how individual accounts from opposing ideological positions and social classes converged around a shared concept of collective identity in the image of Zaynab bint Ali. The chapter weaves between interviews conducted with pro-Khomeini Islamists active in Iran during the late 1970s (all of whom were men) and interviews conducted with women from leftist groups or unaffiliated members of the population as well as stories from a women’s daily magazine published at the time. It shows that narrative reception and judgment play an important role in revolutionary action, the representation of which augurs a comparative methodology for social science inquiry about revolution in the Global South.

Abstract: This introductory chapter sets out the conceptual and methodological foundations of Mediterranean studies in antiquity, arguing for an integrated and cross-disciplinary framework for understanding the ancient Mediterranean world. It challenges the long-standing compartmentalization of research into isolated disciplines and instead promotes a synthetic approach that foregrounds connectivity, interaction, and the longue durée perspective. The chapter traces the intellectual genealogy of Mediterranean studies from Braudel’s structural history through Horden and Purcell’s networked micro-ecologies to the current global and scientific turns, situating this evolving field within broader debates on globalization, climate change, and cultural exchange.

How can we regulate private power in a globalized, digitized world where state-centered sovereignty, territorial boundaries, and traditional legal frameworks fall short? This introductory chapter provides an overview of the book, its arguments, methodology, and contributions, addressing the urgent need for accountability mechanisms to tame the increasingly unilateral global governance by a handful of corporations. Focusing on content moderation, it examines two key case studies: the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) and Meta’s Oversight Board. Both exemplify “emulation,” where public law mechanisms, particularly constitutional and administrative, are adapted to private governance.

Analyzing these “Emulated Guardians”–institutions borrowing the legitimacy of courts while operating in private or hybrid contexts–this book highlights their reliance on performativity and public perception to assert authority. Through interdisciplinary analysis, empirical findings, and expert interviews, the book reveals the ambivalent outcomes of emulation: promising tools for accountability yet sometimes lacking practical efficacy. Ultimately, this work frames these mechanisms as harbingers of new accountability norms, arguing that governance in the digital age demands not only novel institutions but also robust public engagement. It situates these developments within broader debates about power, legitimacy, and the evolving role of public law ideals in globalized, networked environments.

This chapter presents the research methodology and conceptual foundations of this study on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. It combines analysis of primary and secondary sources – including archival research in London, Jerusalem, Washington, DC, and Oslo – with over one hundred semi-structured interviews. These interviews with senior officials and diplomats from ten countries and the United Nations form a rich oral history, offering firsthand insights into key moments, strategic decisions and ethical dilemmas. The conceptual framework draws on theories of justice, conflict resolution, negotiation, mediation and facilitation, as well as the concepts of political ripeness, compromise, superforecasting and spoiler management. It integrates normative and empirical scholarship to explore the conditions for peace, emphasising the role of intermediaries and the need for sustained, coordinated engagement. The chapter argues that principled compromise – anchored in analytical rigour and institutional resilience – is vital for lasting peace. This framework informs the study’s empirical analysis and contributes to broader debates in international relations, law and peace studies.

The history of astronomy and the history of philosophy are inextricably fused. This chapter highlights some of the dramatic episodes when astronomy confronted philosophical issues in metaphysics – questions regarding the objects astronomy studies; in epistemology – what is the most fruitful way to acquire knowledge in astronomy? And finally the ultimate existential question – what kind of a science is astronomy? Is it even a natural science at all?

This chapter introduces the broad conceptual framework of the processes of subjectivisation within global discourses and connects it to agency. It introduces the idea of situational agency and draws upon Mahmood’s work to suggest that agency can be found in the ‘inhabitation of norms’. the chapter provides a background context to post-genocide Rwandan policies, introducing the key agenda of unity and reconciliation, and presents Rwanda as a post-colonial state. Finally, this chapter problematises the collection and interpretation of field data in a post-colonial setting.

Chapter 7 reviews the main findings of the analyses presented in Chapters 1-6. These identify essential characteristics of ideology and demonstrate that the appeals exhibit these characteristics and that the methods typically used for the analysis of nefarious ideologies can be profitably applied to liberational ones. They augment Verschueren’s analytic procedures with technical and theoretical devices to account for the interplay among implicit and explicit meanings, indices of discourse interaction, and metapragmatic activities. It reviews the claim that the appeals are designed for at least two audiences: their addressees and Amnesty members. It revisits discussion of ideology in light of the analyses of the Amnesty documents, contrasting these and other human rights documents with mythic and ritualistic elements of two US Nazi documents. The chapter concludes by discussing unexpected findings, changes in human rights, Amnesty’s adaptations to changes in communication technologies, reasons for counterscreening and an invitation to use the additional corpus of appeals in Appendix 3 for this purpose, and suggestions for further research on oppositional activist discourses.

In this introduction, I explore theories of injury and ethnographic methods for studying them. I treat injuries and their causes holistically, as reflecting the wounding and coactive effects of an array of harmful exposures, historical circumstances, technologies, environments, and political systems. In conceiving of injury across different scales of time, I offer insights into what health scholars term the ‘secondary’ impacts of injury on claimants and their families. Increasingly, scholars recognize that compensation systems, medico-legal assessments, and claim-making practices themselves contribute to or cause significant negative harm and secondary impacts to both the injured and their families. In contrast to the medical language of primary and secondary illness, I argue for a participant-centred and experience-near approach, one that can trace the connections test veterans themselves draw across time and within their personal and community illness narratives, as they built understandings of radiation injury and harm. Original injury or exposure ‘events’ were narratively enfolded within the cascade of transforming and accumulating harms that participants experienced.