Mental Handicap and Citizenship

ABSTRACT Mentally handicapped people have been taken in philosophical work as an obvious exception to the canons which are applied to other, 'rational'individuals. This paper argues that mentally handicapped people should be accorded the same rights as others. If there are human rights, then mentally handicapped people are entitled to them as humans; and if there are rights which apply in general to citizens, the same rights apply equally to mentally handicapped people. The argument for the inclusion of mentally handicapped people as citizens is first, that there is a presumption of inclusion: if citizenship is accorded to all other individuals, there is no reason why citizenship should not be accorded to mentally handicapped people on the same basis as others. Second, mentally handicapped people cannot successfully be excluded without effectively challenging the presumption of inclusion applied to other groups. Third, and perhaps most important, there are positive reasons why mentally handicapped people, as a particularly vulnerable group, need to have rights to protect them against particular abuses.     

GOD INCARNATE AND THE DEFEAT OF EVIL

In this essay, I assess Marilyn McCord Adams's important and provocative incarnation-centered approach to the problem of evil. In particular, I examine the central theological components of her approach: her novel but also problematic conceptions of creation, sin, redemption, grace, and eschatological consummation. My further goal is to use my critical analysis of Adams's approach in order to begin to articulate and defend an alternative incarnation-centered approach, based on a more classically orthodox conception of divine defeat of evil, which is both immune to the criticisms I raise against Adams's approach and possesses a higher degree of explanatory power.     

TRANSCENDENCE AND EPISTEMOLOGY: EXPLORING TRUTH VIA POST-SECULAR CHRISTIAN PLATONISM

Where epistemology and transcendence are considered compatible, three approaches to truth are pursued. A Platonist approach sees true human knowledge as embedded in, and dependent on, transcendence; a neoplatonist Aristotelian approach remains Platonic in the above sense, and then sees ‘natural’ human knowledge as providing valid grounds for limited speculative knowledge about divine truths; proto‐modern Aristotelianism, however, approaches transcendence from an inherently naturalistic stance. This article endeavours to trace the collapse of metaphysical confidence inherent in the trajectory of modern epistemological foundationalism, through proto‐modern Aristotelianism, and suggests that post‐secular Christian Platonism can return a valid metaphysical confidence to us.     

Choreography Styles in Figure Skating

Fifty‐eight figure skating trainers from fifteen different countries acted as volunteers in this study on choreography styles. The styles were based on reports of artistic‐creative strategies in composing music, drawing, writing poems or novels, and in making dances. The prevalence of the Mozartian (at the onset the choreographer already has a more or less complete plan in mind), Beethovenian (the choreographer does not start with a complete plan, but instead focuses on a succession of single and detailed elements) and Avant‐garde Style (instead of starting from the music, as the impulse for creating movements, trainers choreograph straight from movement ideas) is 77.2%, 56.4%, and 16.1% respectively. The results from a CATPCA reveal that the features, associated with the three choreography styles have loadings on two dimensions, one representing features predominantly belonging to primary process thinking (Mozartian), the other representing features predominantly related to secondary process thinking (Beethovenian and Avant‐Garde). In the discussion attention is paid to 1) why the Mozartian and Beethovenian are more popular than the AvantGarde Style, to 2) the universal quality of artistic‐creative styles in a wide range of artistic endeavors, and to 3) the differences between elite, runner‐up, and novice trainers on experience, on using the assistance of a professional choreographer, and on using the Avant‐Garde Style.