How do the dual trends of increased misinformation in politics and increased socioeconomic inequality contribute to an erosion of trust and confidence in democratic institutions? In an era of massive misinformation, voters bear the burden of separating truth from lies as they determine how they stand on important issue areas and which candidates to support. When candidates engage in misinformation, it uncouples the already weak link among vote intentions, candidate choice, and policy outputs. At the same time, high levels of economic inequality and social stratification may contribute to lower levels of institutional trust, and the correspondingly more insular socioeconomic groups may experience misinformation differently. Social policy, as a policy area intentionally designed to alleviate risk and redistribute resources, thus becomes a special case where the effects of misinformation and socioeconomic inequality may be crosscutting and heightened.

This chapter argues that Darwin’s philosophical theory of emotion has been forgotten due to paradigm shifts in biology, psychology, and philosophy. These shifts have caused researchers to neglect associationist theories of emotions, including Darwin’s contributions to this school of thought. Having explained why Darwin’s philosophy was forgotten, I conclude by explaining why it should be remembered, given its relevance for contemporary emotions research.

The question of whether the mafia was a state of mind or an organisation has been settled by the revelations of Tommaso Buscetta. This chapter discusses the nature of the internal organisation taken from the prosecution case in the 1986 'maxi-processo' (Maxi-Trial). Mafia boss from Riesi who provided the police with information about the developing split inside Cosa Nostra and the rise of the Corleonese faction, which would lead to the mafia war of 1980-83. In 1973, Leonardo Vitale became the first mafioso in modern times to collaborate with the police. His testimony was dismissed, and he himself was convicted and locked up in a mental hospital. He was finally released in 1984. but was murdered by the mafia some months later.

This chapter analyzes how social policy in China has contributed to the well-being of the middle class and their trust of the government. The author argues that if we examine not just China’s earlier reform period (1978–2003) and the fast-growing era (2003–2012), but also the sharp Left Turn in recent years (2012–present), it is hard to fit China’s social policy into the theories of productivism or developmental welfare state that are often associated with the East Asian countries. China’s welfare system is an instrumentalist model which is centered on maintaining the leadership of the Communist Party of China. With this in mind, social policies have been actively used in the past few years to support two mutually independent but intersecting intermediate goals: maintaining economic development and social stability. Both are vital to the party’s authority.

Between 1499 and 1502, Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci surveyed unknown lands across the Atlantic, sparking European interest in new territories. His letters, describing a gigantic island, reached cartographer Martin Waldseemüller, who named the landmass "America" on a 1507 map. This story highlights the power of early modern maps to create realities through naming and representation. The Introduction to Connected Cartographies contrasts this model of discovery with the understanding of China, which was not "discovered" in the same way. Instead, knowledge about China emerged through cross-cultural cartographic exchanges, involving translations and synthesis of Chinese and European maps. These exchanges began in the late sixteenth century and continued into the nineteenth century. This process resulted in translated maps that combined features from both traditions, challenging the traditional narrative of exploration and emphasizing the importance of translation in shaping global geography.

This chapter explores, in a roundabout way, whether Kant’s legal philosophy relies on his mature ethics of autonomy and respect. The normativity of the law must be externally enforced by coercive measures. The proportionate and credible threat that transgressions will be punished acts as a deterrent and make the rights of individuals comparatively secure – the law is occasionally broken. Now, the Kantian state does not concern itself with why in particular citizens break or comply with the law. In that sense, Kant’s philosophy of law does not rely on his ethical theory or moral psychology. But agents must be in a position to comply with the law. They must face a meaningful choice, which can only be secured by the availability of the motive of ethics: respect for the law. Without respect, agents would be exposed to prudential considerations only. Those who break the law take their criminal act to be prudentially justified. Viewed from this limited perspective, their actions turn out to be imprudent if they are punished for them. But punishability and imprudence are different. So, making what the law prohibits properly illegal requires an ethical foundation after all.

This chapter contends that writing is a practice of taking responsibility for restitution. I focus on works by W. G. Sebald, Alexander Kluge and Heimrad Bäcker. In his last speech before his death, Sebald stated ‘only in literature […] can there be a form of restitution’. I look at the way two of his novels, The Emigrants (1992) and Austerlitz (2001), are literally put together and examine how they correspond to this restitutive obligation. In addition, I examine short stories by Alexander Kluge from 1962 and 2013 and the form of their response to the NS regime. I also show how the concrete poetry of Heimrad Bäcker in his work transcript (1986) demonstrates a writing practice of fragmentation and citation in its confrontation with the NS legal archives. The works in this chapter span three different literary genres and all show a struggle with the persona of the author and the practice of writing – its possibilities and its responsibilities – in the aftermath of the NS regime and the Holocaust.

This chapter explores how Operation Lava Jato, a criminal investigation of public officials laundering money through a Brazilian gas station chain, brought about the overhaul of Brazil’s political system. My main argument is that focusing only on Lava Jato and its actors, as others have done, leads to a moralistic and oversimplified perspective. Rather, Lava Jato is better understood as the result of two mobilization efforts intersecting to produce a “perfect storm.” The first mobilization had to do with shifting US priorities. US officials sought to mobilize the label of anti-corruption for economic advantage (market access). Their anti-corruption efforts were largely rebuffed by Brazilian officials, however. The second mobilization originated in Brazil and involved Sérgio Moro’s efforts to mobilize part of Brazilian society around an anti-corruption campaign with a clear partisan agenda. Moro rose to national prominence partly by using the organizational platform created by the United States. Thus the one mobilization, ineffective by itself, served to empower the other. These mobilizations, combined, proved deeply consequential, producing a rupture in Brazilian politics, sinking the country’s GDP, and creating the anti-institutional and punitive atmosphere that led to Jair Bolsonaro’s presidential victory.

In both philosophical research and public discourse around dementia, issues of power and social status receive insufficient attention. The Introduction sets out how this book is aimed at filling this gap.

Chapter 9 considers Emerson’s first revolutionary book of 1836, Nature. Even in this first book, Goodman argues, Emerson presents a nascent epistemology of moods. The discussion then turns to the moody swings of “Nature,” from the Essays, Second Series, in which Emerson finds the natural world either bountifully present or just missed, and as taking two opposing forms: a stable finished form he calls natura naturata, and a dynamic form he calls natura naturans. At the end of the essay, Emerson abandons this main set of oppositions in a leap to a metaphysical conclusion. The Coda considers Emerson’s attraction to Michael Faraday’s idea that “we do not arrive at last at atoms, but at spherules of force.”

Cardiac arrest survivorship is a burgeoning phenomenon, largely driven by advances in intensive care and widespread public health campaigns aimed at improving resuscitation outcomes. However, the specific risk factors, mediators, and effective interventions that support long-term survivorship and recovery remain insufficiently understood and are the focus of ongoing research. Survivors of cardiac arrest face multifaceted challenges that affect various aspects of health, including physical, cognitive, psychological, and social well-being. Psychological distress, cardiac anxiety, and the stability of the family unit following cardiac arrest emerge as key factors influencing recovery. Targeted interventions that address the distinct phases of critical illness and recovery following cardiac arrest are crucial and warrant further investigation and implementation.

This chapter examines the mechanics of how the US government, specifically the State Department, sanctions terrorists pursuant to two legal mechanisms – terrorist designations of Foreign Terrorist Organizations and the sanctioning of individuals and organizations pursuant to E.O. 13224.