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Wittgenstein’s Case for the Fool: Existence in the Mind Is a Mentalist Assumption in Anselm’s Epistemological Argument in Proslogion, 2
No full textIn Proslogion, Anselm claims that understanding God as “something beyond which a greater nothing can be thought” refers to God’s existence in the mind and facilitates our understanding of God existing also in reality. The argument is epistemological and not ontological since its conclusion is our understanding of God’s existence, not a proof or demonstration that God exists. However, I argue that Anselm’s notion of existence in the mind invokes mentalism, a claim that meaning is housed in the mind and semantic rules are contained within linguistic expression itself. Wittgenstein argued that mentalism is a mistaken conflation of linguistic understanding with ostensive reference to one’s private sensations. Instead, all linguistic understanding depends on the public use of rules operating within a specific semantic context. If mentalism is false, then the concept of existence in the mind alone is a shallow metaphysical idea, rendering the rest of the argument invalid
Optimization of Silicon Solar Cell Efficiency Using SnO₂ and ZnO Anti-Reflective Coatings: A Numerical Approach with PC1D
No full textA numerical simulation of the behavior of three types of solar cells: Si (N⁺)/Si (P), SnO2/Si (N⁺)/Si (P), and ZnO/Si (N⁺)/Si (P) is presented in this study. The simulation is devoted to analyzing the impact of the SnO2 and ZnO window layers on the device’s performance. We utilize a renowned photovoltaic modelling code, namely PC1D. A comparative analysis was conducted on the performance of the three structures Si (N⁺)/Si (P), SnO2 /Si (N⁺)/Si (P), and ZnO /Si (N⁺)/Si (P), assessing their impact on the characteristic I (V)/P(V) and efficiency, confirming an increase in conversion efficiency with the addition of the two anti-reflective layers such as SnO2 and ZnO with 31.41% and 33.64%, respectively
In Great Haste to See a Play: A Woman Playgoer in Jacobean Worcester
No full textThis note transcribes a letter written by Mary Ingram of Worcester sometime between 1607 and 1614, in which she describes going to see a play. The note provides some context about Mary, and her sister to whom she sent the letter, and what performance she might have gone to see, and what her letter reveals about early modern women as playgoers in the provinces
\u27Princely Performed to the Honor of Our Nation\u27: Leicester’s Men in the Netherlands as Agents of English Soft Power
No full textWhen Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, travelled to the Netherlands leading Elizabeth I’s 1585 military intervention in the Dutch revolt, he brought along his acting troupe, which delivered entertainment during the welcome festivities, performing for several of Dudley’s major diplomatic interlocutors. While scholars have long recognized the significance of this tour for English theatre history, the international relations context that brought the actors to Europe has received little attention. Drawing on recent historical research exploring ‘cultural diplomacy’ in the early modern world, I reevaluate Leicester’s Men as agents of English ‘soft power’ who built international influence through pageantry, drama, and ritual gift-giving at a strategically significant diplomatic occasion
Edward Gieskes. Generic Innovation in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2023.
No full textThis review considers Edward Gieskes\u27s Generic Innovation in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries
Editorial
No full textThis editorial for Early Theatre issue 28.1 (June 2025) thanks outgoing editorial advisory board members, welcomes new advisory board members and our new graduate editorial assistant, and reflects on the collective labours of scholarly publishing
Petroleum product subsidies in Ghana: Do the rich benefit more than the poor?
No full textThis study investigates the direct welfare impact of fuel price increases using Ghana living standards survey data. The study argues that the effect of increase in fuel prices falls on the rich more than the poor, therefore, introducing subsidies to mitigate the impact will benefit the rich more than the poor. The findings suggest that fuel price subsidies are regressive with the rich benefiting three times more than the poor. The study recommends a policy that ensures direct cash transfer to cushion the poor against hikes in fuel prices or social intervention programs that directly impact the poor
Limits of Complementarity: Private Governance and Public Regulation of Labour Standards in Brazil’s Garment Supply Chain
Full text linkUnder what conditions can private compliance and public regulation be complementary within global value chains, resulting in promotion of labor standards? This critical case study examines a retailer-led association that developed a code and social audit mechanism in apparel supply chains in Brazil - the world’s third largest apparel market and fourth largest apparel manufacturer - and its relationship with regulation by public authorities. The authors highlight key undertheorized institutional dimensions of effectiveness in private governance and in public inspection shaping the viability of complementarity, and how weaknesses therein undermined initial prospects for public-private complementarity identified by practitioners and analysts in this code. As institutional flaws kept the code distant from better practices theorized and evident internationally in private labor governance, and the public inspectorate and forced labor enforcement regime declined institutionally, labor standards languished. Rather that outright displacement of public by private, or an effective coordination through complementarity, the study finds two rivalrous, competitive systems. Important issues are raised for future research about this Brazilian code and key implications are raised regarding the need for a more sophisticated institutional lens to inform efforts to study complementarity as an analytical construct and develop it as a policy construct in the ILO setting
Guest Editorial: The Gig Economy and Women Workers in the Middle East
Full text linkWhat is the impact of the so-called gig economy on women workers in the Middle East? Does digitalisation represent a catalyst for female labour participation in the region or a burden leading to further financial insecurity and invisibility? How are ordinary women gig workers re-imagining their tech lives and challenging unwritten rules, patriarchy and lack of access to the labour market? Featuring articles analysing case studies in Egypt, Iraq, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, this special issue addresses the abovementioned questions, directly speaking to the academic debate on the global gig economies. Proving a regional and local perspective, it contributes to a more plural understanding of gig work in a multiplicity of contexts, practices and experiences. It investigates the relationship between the daily and the digital to explore the role of platforms in shaping female labour participation and women’s empowerment, as well as issues of precarisation and marginalisation. By proposing a collection of original and pioneering research on an understudied topic as applied to specific contexts in the Middle East, the special issue broadens the analysis of the so-called gig economy beyond a mere economic lens, bringing together multi-disciplinary insights and approaches from sociology, political economy and digital anthropology. It shows that online gig work is neither a crystallised nor monolithic dimension. Instead, platforms - in some instances - have become vectors of formalisation instead of leading only to informality, such as in the case of taxi driving app and home cooking/food delivery, where apps have enhanced more regulation as formality was not the norm before. Women gig workers are re-imagining their roles in their everyday practices of working from home, blurring the lines between the public and the private spheres. They adapt to neoliberal conditions of flexibilisation to sustain their needs in contexts where processes of labour informalisation have long permeated the development of labour relations