Scholarly Works - Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH)No Descriptionhttps://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/2448142024-03-28T18:20:48Z2024-03-28T18:20:48Z691Priestcraft. Anatomising the Anti-Clericalism of Early Modern Europe.Lancaster, James ATMcKenzie-McHarg, Andrewhttps://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/2783372024-01-07T06:52:53Z2018-01-02T00:00:00Zdc.title: Priestcraft. Anatomising the Anti-Clericalism of Early Modern Europe.
dc.contributor.author: Lancaster, James AT; McKenzie-McHarg, Andrew
dc.description.abstract: This paper aims to take the measure of the strand of early modern anti-clericalism that was conveyed by the term “priestcraft.” Priestcraft amounted to the claim that priests had illegitimately usurped civil power and accumulated material wealth by systematically deceiving the laity and its secular rulers. Religion as it was practised and avowed by believers in early modern Europe was left tainted by this charge since manifold aspects of religious practice and belief fell under the pall of the suspicion that they were merely part of the ruse perpetrated through the centuries by greedy and power-hungry priests. While the English language was particularly effective in condensing this claim into the term in question, mistrust of the clergy informed numerous discourses unfolding in the diverse confessional and intellectual contexts of early modern Europe. The present article seeks to draw attention to the thematic richness of priestcraft as an object of historical inquiry by identifying the multiple ways in which this trope made its presence felt in the early modern world.
2018-01-02T00:00:00ZThe Germ of an Idea: Contagionism, Religion, and Society in Britain, 1660-1730 [Book review]Fransen, Sietskehttps://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/2772542024-01-07T07:03:12Z2017-12-01T00:00:00Zdc.title: The Germ of an Idea: Contagionism, Religion, and Society in Britain, 1660-1730 [Book review]
dc.contributor.author: Fransen, Sietske
dc.description.abstract: This well-documented book on the history of medicine in the context of religion, politics, and society in early modern England represents an important contribution to the current existing literature in the field. The
extensive notes and the bibliography (with remarks as to the online availability of primary sources) are in themselves useful resources.
2017-12-01T00:00:00ZThe Role of Georg Friedrich von Johnssen in the Emergence of the Unknown Superiors, 1763–64McKenzie-McHarg, Andrewhttps://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/2755172024-01-07T07:24:16Z2018-01-02T00:00:00Zdc.title: The Role of Georg Friedrich von Johnssen in the Emergence of the Unknown Superiors, 1763–64
dc.contributor.author: McKenzie-McHarg, Andrew
dc.description.abstract: This article seeks to clarify the role played by the alchemist Georg
Friedrich Johnssen (c.1726-1775) in the emergence of the notion
that Freemasonry and other secret societies in the second half of
the eighteenth-century were ruled by figures whose identity was a
secret and who came to be described as unknown superiors. Although
Johnssen’s interest in alchemy might seem to be a source of this
notion of secret authority, a more probing inquiry reveals that the
unknown superiors arose as a result of a historical (and not an esoteric)
conception of the secret of Freemasonry.
2018-01-02T00:00:00ZClassifying global catastrophic risksAvin, SWintle, BCWeitzdörfer, JÓ hÉigeartaigh, SSSutherland, WJRees, MJhttps://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/2755082023-12-21T01:19:21Z2018-01-01T00:00:00Zdc.title: Classifying global catastrophic risks
dc.contributor.author: Avin, S; Wintle, BC; Weitzdörfer, J; Ó hÉigeartaigh, SS; Sutherland, WJ; Rees, MJ
dc.description.abstract: We present a novel classification framework for severe global catastrophic risk scenarios. Extending beyond existing work that identifies individual risk scenarios, we propose analysing global catastrophic risks along three dimensions: the critical systems affected, global spread mechanisms, and prevention and mitigation failures. The classification highlights areas of convergence between risk scenarios, which supports prioritisation of particular research and of policy interventions. It also points to potential knowledge gaps regarding catastrophic risks, and provides an interdisciplinary structure for mapping and tracking the multitude of factors that could contribute to global catastrophic risks.
2018-01-01T00:00:00ZThe Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence: Forecasting, Prevention,
and MitigationBrundage, MilesAvin, ShaharClark, JackToner, HelenEckersley, PeterGarfinkel, BenDafoe, AllanScharre, PaulZeitzoff, ThomasFilar, BobbyAnderson, HyrumRoff, HeatherAllen, Gregory CSteinhardt, JacobFlynn, CarrickhÉigeartaigh, Seán ÓBeard, SimonBelfield, HaydnFarquhar, SebastianLyle, ClareCrootof, RebeccaEvans, OwainPage, MichaelBryson, JoannaYampolskiy, RomanAmodei, Dariohttps://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/2753322023-12-22T14:09:49Z2018-02-20T00:00:00Zdc.title: The Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence: Forecasting, Prevention,
and Mitigation
dc.contributor.author: Brundage, Miles; Avin, Shahar; Clark, Jack; Toner, Helen; Eckersley, Peter; Garfinkel, Ben; Dafoe, Allan; Scharre, Paul; Zeitzoff, Thomas; Filar, Bobby; Anderson, Hyrum; Roff, Heather; Allen, Gregory C; Steinhardt, Jacob; Flynn, Carrick; hÉigeartaigh, Seán Ó; Beard, Simon; Belfield, Haydn; Farquhar, Sebastian; Lyle, Clare; Crootof, Rebecca; Evans, Owain; Page, Michael; Bryson, Joanna; Yampolskiy, Roman; Amodei, Dario
dc.description.abstract: This report surveys the landscape of potential security threats from
malicious uses of AI, and proposes ways to better forecast, prevent, and
mitigate these threats. After analyzing the ways in which AI may influence the
threat landscape in the digital, physical, and political domains, we make four
high-level recommendations for AI researchers and other stakeholders. We also
suggest several promising areas for further research that could expand the
portfolio of defenses, or make attacks less effective or harder to execute.
Finally, we discuss, but do not conclusively resolve, the long-term equilibrium
of attackers and defenders.
2018-02-20T00:00:00ZNietzsche between History, Economics, and PoliticsHalferty Drochon, HPPhttps://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/2751952023-12-22T01:40:34Zdc.title: Nietzsche between History, Economics, and Politics
dc.contributor.author: Halferty Drochon, HPP
dc.description.abstract: Is Nietzsche best approached through the lenses of intellectual history, the history of political thought, political theory or indeed political economy? This is the challenge James Chappel, Udi Greenberg, Dotan Leshem and Rebecca Mitchell all pose in their wonderfully stimulating reviews of my book. In an age of post-truth, fake news and the rejection of experts, it is a true honour to be read with such care and precision by four brilliant and leading scholars in their field. I am extremely grateful for their overall positive response to the book, and thank them for their many kind words about it. There is, of course, so much to discuss, so many avenues to explore that arise out of these reviews. But there is also, as always, so little time. So I think the best way for me proceed – and the best way to repay the favour – is to engage directly with the comments of my interlocutors.
Geoengineering TensionsCurrie, AMhttps://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/2751872023-12-21T05:30:17Z2018-09-01T00:00:00Zdc.title: Geoengineering Tensions
dc.contributor.author: Currie, AM
dc.description.abstract: There has been much discussion of the moral, legal and prudential implications of geoengineering, and of governance structures for both the research and deployment of such technologies. However, insufficient attention has been paid to how such measures might affect geoengineering in terms of the incentive structures which underwrite scientific progress. There is a tension between the features that make science productive, and the need to govern geoengineering research, which has thus far gone underappreciated. I emphasize how geoengineering research requires governance which reaches beyond science’s traditional boundaries, and moreover requires knowledge which itself reaches beyond what we traditionally expect scientists to know about. How we govern emerging technologies should be sensitive to the incentive structures which drive science.
2018-09-01T00:00:00ZThe Art of Law in ShakespeareHolmes, Rachel Ehttps://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/2751412024-01-08T01:44:56Z2018-01-01T00:00:00Zdc.title: The Art of Law in Shakespeare
dc.contributor.author: Holmes, Rachel E
dc.description.abstract: Shakespeare’s relationship with Law may be well established, but Paul Raffield demonstrates its richness and variety in The Art of Law in Shakespeare. Building on his work in Shakespeare’s Imaginary Constitution: Late Elizabethan Politics and the Theatre of Law (Hart, 2010), Raffield turns his attention in this monograph to the early years of Jacobean rule. In the Introduction, he outlines his central premise, that ‘during the first decade of Jacobean rule, the arts of law and drama developed contiguously, the one aesthetic form learning from and imitating the other’ (p. 9). He consequently sets out his core interests as the exploration of the representation of the legal institution in Shakespeare’s Jacobean plays and the ways in which they thematize ‘the rationale of Jacobean kingship and the (often fractious) relationship between crown and common law’ (p. 11). However, framing the narrative in this way impedes the coherence of the overarching argument and understates the wider scholarly contribution of this book. Underpinning the monograph is continued attention to ‘the correlation between law and nature, and the identification of common law with a higher moral law, inscribed by God in the hearts of men’ (p. 2). Raffield seems, above all, to be interested in the mythologizing of common law’s origins—which is to say the assertion of the primacy of the English secular legal system by way of rhetorically rooting it in classical and Judaeo-Christian histories—as a way of asserting legal authority. Equally important throughout is the question of genealogy and how common law (a system of precedent reliant on history and change) meets, and maintains authority in the face of, cultural challenges such as the professionalization of the legal system, the dangers of treason, legal pluralism and assertions of royal authority, and the expansion of trade and colonialism. This monograph therefore contributes to recent discussions in the field of law and literature and Renaissance Studies more broadly about the transnational in early modern Europe, specifically through its emphasis on the British political and legal desire for dominion.
2018-01-01T00:00:00ZEye for Detail: Images of Plants and Animals in Art and Science, 1500-1630Fransen, Sietskehttps://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/2747772023-12-21T04:27:31Z2018-01-01T00:00:00Zdc.title: Eye for Detail: Images of Plants and Animals in Art and Science, 1500-1630
dc.contributor.author: Fransen, Sietske
dc.description.abstract: This beautifully produced and densely illustrated book is an important addition
to the existing literature on illustrations of nature in the sixteenth and
early seventeenth century. Florike Egmond makes a daring choice by enlisting
modern terminology in describing the early modern techniques of depicting
plants and animals. Self-consciously anachronistic concepts such as “layered
images”, “time lapse”, “photoshopping”, “zoom” and “insets” are used throughout
the book. The effect is paradoxical: on the one hand they give the reader
a feeling of familiarity with the processes she describes, on the other their
deployment in this context aims ‘to make things strange’ (pp. 232–234). One
of the main points of the book is to show convincingly that the way of depicting
plants and animals did not abruptly change with new technologies such as
the printing press and the microscope. Using the anachronistic vocabulary is a
bold experiment to extend the line of continuity into our own time. Some readers
will see value in this Brechtian Verfremdungseffekt; others who are more
sceptical of its heuristic value will find it a distraction.
2018-01-01T00:00:00ZIn pursuit of truthHolmes, REJohnson, Thttps://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/2741822023-12-22T01:42:22Z2018-01-01T00:00:00Zdc.title: In pursuit of truth
dc.contributor.author: Holmes, RE; Johnson, T
dc.description.abstract: IN THE PAST FEW YEARS a wave of right-wing populism has swept the western world and we have seen emotions take the political helm. The voting booth triumphs of Donald Trump in the United States and Brexit in the United Kingdom were affective: they stoked racist, sexist and nativist sentiments while campaigning on social, economic and legal issues. In short: they moved the electorate, and thereby gained control. As Hillary Clinton explains, these tactics are designed to ‘keep people off balance and make them think that this will, if not make their lives better, make them feel better’ (emphasis ours).1 We might therefore say that feelings brought Trump to power and propelled the Brexit campaign in Britain. We might equally suggest that they continue to drive these political and legislative agendas. The Trump administration has already demonstrated an unprecedented reliance on the executive order as an exercise of presidential will, issuing an abundance of executive actions – legally
enforceable actions – that have predominantly targeted Muslims, immigrants, LGBTQIA+ people, and women, groups who were also the focus of emotionally charged, hateful rhetoric on the campaign trail.2 Meanwhile, in the UK, the Brexiteers continue to insist, as they did throughout the referendum campaign to leave the European Union, upon the need to reclaim ‘sovereignty’. This is an amorphous concept which they characterize, in explicitly legal terms, as the act of taking jurisdiction (and thereby control) back from the courts of the European Union; in
practice it has come to stand in popular parlance for a certain brand of nationalistic fellow-feeling.3 Feelings also inform the forces resisting those agendas. Consider, for example, the crowd-sourced legal action to challenge the British government’s attempts to initiate Brexit without parliamentary involvement.4 Or the countless immigration lawyers who waited for hours with fellow protesters in American airports following the issuance of Trump’s ‘travel’ ban, ready to represent those whose arrival in the country might be impeded.5 These cases all dealt with constitutional
issues, and even in the word ‘constitutional’, a word we have heard a great deal in recent months, we can see the interplay of emotional and legal connotations. This word encompasses a technical legal meaning in the notion of a country’s founding legal document or principles, but it also bears the idea of a human constitution, a disposition or emotional make-up. Ours is a moment in which we are forcefully reminded of the emotional content of law.6
2018-01-01T00:00:00Z