In this dissertation, I examine the origins and nature of Mach's philosophy, or rather theory, of science. I show how it relates to, and is informed by, his own works in physiology, psychophysics, physics, and the history and psychology of science. I argue that Mach's theory of science grew out of his concern to provide a single, unified--albeit coherent--perspective on both the life and physical sciences. Corresponding to this conceptual unification of perspectives in the different branches of knowledge, lies Mach's (...) belief in the unity of the so-called 'organic' and 'inorganic' worlds. I demonstrate how Mach grappled with these issues, tracing the evolutionary development of his thought, which vacillates between the two poles of the physical and the psychological, culminating in his neutral monism. My main findings, which differ from previous accounts of Mach, consist in the following: Mach can be considered as a precursor of Logical Positivism only in the sense that they both reject metaphysics, and believe that the world can be constructed out of simple entities. However, significant differences can be discerned between Mach and the Logical Positivists, viz.: Mach's emphasis on history and psychology--rather than logic--in understanding the nature of scientific knowledge, Mach is not a scientific realist, and he asserts the primacy of sensations over physical objects. Mach's notion of "philosophy", and hence of "philosophy of science", differs in character from contemporary mainstream philosophy of science which is based on analytic philosophy. For Mach, philosophy is not first philosophy and its function is not to provide justification or foundation for science. In this sense Mach anticipates the naturalization of epistemology and the philosophy of science. ;Finally, I show how his reaction towards atomism can be understood within this broader context of his attempt to provide a unified view of knowledge. I defend Mach's stand on atomism on the grounds that his objection is not so much against the development of the atomic theory, but against a realist construal of the atom and the mechanistic-reductionistic world-view implied by it. (shrink)

In this article, I will view realist and non-realist accounts of scientific models within the larger context of the cultural significance of scientific knowledge. I begin by looking at the historical context and origins of the problem of scientific realism, and claim that it is originally of cultural and not only philosophical, significance. The cultural significance of debates on the epistemological status of scientific models is then related to the question of ‘intelligibility’ and how science, through models, can give us (...) knowledge of the world by presenting us with an ‘intelligible account/picture of the world’, thus fulfilling its cultural-epistemic role. Realists typically assert that science can perform this role, while non-realists deny this. The various strategies adopted by realists and non-realists in making good their respective claims, is then traced to their cultural motivations. Finally I discuss the cultural implications of adopting realist or non-realist views of models through a discussion of the views of Rorty, Gellner, Van Fraassen and Clifford Hooker on the cultural significance of scientific knowledge.Keywords: Models; Intelligibility; Scientific realism; Culture. (shrink)

The rise of modern science has evoked responses from both Muslim and Western thinkers. Since science is a central feature of modernity, their responses to science can also be read as their responses to modernity. These intellectual responses can best be gauged through discourses in the history and philosophy of science since the 1970s.Although the history and philosophy of science are commonly understood as academic disciplines that study science in its historical and philosophical aspects, discourse in the history and philosophy (...) of science can nevertheless be seen as part of the wider discourse on modernity. Scholars have attempted to define the meaning and content of modernity and what... (shrink)

Obtaining informed consent is a cornerstone of biomedical research, yet participants comprehension of presented information is often low. The most effective interventions to improve understanding rates have not been identified.

O artigo faz uma síntese das discussões a respeito da relação entre consciência planetária, sustentabilidade e religião , a partir dos últimos congressos e publicações da SOTER, de eventos recentes de Teologia e Ciências da Religião e da Cúpula dos Povos (2012). Realiza um nivelamento conceitual dos termos envolvidos na questão. Caracteriza “consciência planetária”, a partir da Carta da Terra. Apresenta um panorama acerca do tema “sustentabilidade”, mostrando as principais diferenças e os pontos comuns das principais correntes. Responde a dúvidas, (...) questionamentos e objeções, tais como: se é apropriado designar o ser humano como Filho da Terra; em que sentido a Terra pode ser designada como mãe; liames entre globalização e planetarização; como se relacionam “ecologia” e “consciência planetária”. Delineia quais as tarefas da educação no atual contexto. Por fim, condensa os desafios e perspectivas das religiões em relação à evolução da consciência planetária, na Carta das religiões sobre o cuidado da Terra, da Cúpula dos Povos . Palavras-chave: Consciência planetária. Ecoteologia. Sustentabilidade. Religião e cidadania.This article summarizes the discussions on the relationship between planetary consciousness, sustainability and religion, taking into accounts the recent conferences and publications of SOTER, recent events of Theology, Sciences of Religion and the People's Summit (2012). The text also performs a flatness of conceptual terms involved in the issue. For this purpose, the article characterizes planetary consciousness from the Earth Charter, an overview of the topic sustainability and showing the main differences and commonalities of the major currents. It also answers to some questions and objections such as: a) is it appropriate to designate the human being as the Son of Earth? b) In what way should the earth be designated as a mother? c) What are the bonds between globalization and planetarization? d) How "ecology" and "planetary consciousness" are related? Finally, the article outlines the tasks of education in the current context and summarizes the challenges and prospects of religion in relation to the evolution of planetary consciousness in the Charter of religions regarding the care of Earth. Keywords: Planetary consciousness. Ecotheology. Sustainability. Religion and citizenship. (shrink)

Academic leaders in management from all over the world—including recent calls by the Academy of Management Shaw (Academy of Management Journal 60(3): 819–822, 2017)—have urged further research into the extent and use of questionable research practices (QRPs). In order to provide empirical evidence on the topic of QRPs, this work presents two linked studies. Study 1 determines the level of use of QRPs based on self-admission rates and estimated prevalence among business scholars in Indonesia. It was determined that if the (...) level of QRP use identified in Study 1 was quite high, Study 2 would be conducted to follow-up on this result, and this was indeed the case. Study 2 examines the factors that encourage and discourage the use of QRPs in the sample analyzed. The main research findings are as follows: (a) in Study 1, we found the self-admission rates and estimated prevalence of business scholars’ involvement in QRPs to be quite high when compared with studies conducted in other countries and (b) in Study 2, we found pressure for publication from universities, fear of rejection of manuscripts, meeting the expectations of reviewers, and available rewards to be the main reasons for the use of QRPs in Indonesia, whereas (c) formal sanctions and prevention efforts are factors that discourage QRPs. Recommendations for stakeholders (in this case, reviewers, editors, funders, supervisors, chancellors and others) are also provided in order to reduce the use of QRPs. (shrink)

İslâm coğrafyasının genişlemesi neticesinde Arap olmayan toplulukların İslâm dini ile tanışmaları beraberinde bir takım problemleri de getirmiştir. Bu problemler arasında, Kur’ân’ın yanlış anlaşılma endişesi en başı çekmektedir. Arapçaya hâkim olmamaktan kaynaklanan dil hatalarının âyetlere kadar sirayet ettiğini gösteren birçok rivayetin varlığı da bunu teyit etmektedir. Bundan dolayı hicrî birinci yüzyılın ikinci yarısından itibaren dil ile ilgili faaliyetler aralıksız bir şekilde devam etmiştir. Bu faaliyetler arasında, Kur’ân’ın üslûbunu, âyetlerde yer alan kelimelerin delâleti ve sesletimini, cümlelerin iç bütünlüğü ile filolojik tahlillerini ele (...) alan çalışmalar bulunmaktadır. Bu çalışmalar, Arap gramerinin oluşturulması ve bazı gramer ekollerinin ortaya çıkmasıyla birlikte genellikle “Ma‘âni’l-Ḳur’ân” ve “İ‘râbü’l-Ḳur’ân” başlıkları kullanılarak daha sistemli bir şekilde hicri dördüncü yüzyılın sonlarına kadar devam etmiştir. “Ma‘âni’l-Ḳur’ân” başlığını kullanarak eser yazan âlimler arasında gramer ilmiyle birlikte tefsir alanında da önemli bir konuma sahip olan Yahyâ b. Ziyâd el-Ferrâ da bulunmaktadır. Sözü edilen eserde Ferrâ’nın, lügavî tahlilleri esnasında özellikle sözcüklerin siygası ve çok anlamlılığı doğrultusunda dil-kültür ilişkisine örnek olabilecek birçok bireysel değerlendirmesine rastlanılmaktadır. Onun bazı ayetler etrafında sergilenen çeşitli görüşlere yer verdikten sonra Arap toplumu nezdinde bir yönüyle de bile olsa kabul gören semantik tahlillere ayrıca yer vermesi, müfessirlerin, çoğu zaman anlaşılması güç ayetlerle birlikte murad edilenin dışında bir yorumun önlenmesi için dönemin kültüründen yararlanmaları gerektiği şeklinde de değerlendirilebilir. Bu bakımdan Kur’ân-ı Kerîm’in insanlığa sunduğu mesajların en doğru şekilde anlaşılabilmesi adına bazı âyetlerin tefsiri ve değerlendirmesi yapılırken başvurulacak ilmî merci ve disiplinlerin geniş tutulması önem arz etmektedir. Binâenaleyh makalede Ferrâ’nın kendisine özgü tahlilleriyle beraber, görüşlerine yer verdiği başka âlimlerin analizlerinden sadece dil-kültür ilişkisine örnek olabilecek tespitler üzerinde durularak kültür ve dil etkileşiminin âyet yorumundaki rolüne işaret edilecektir. (shrink)

Bridging the gap between the world of science and the realm of the spiritual, B. Alan Wallace introduces a natural theory of human consciousness that has its roots in contemporary physics and Buddhism. Wallace's "special theory of ontological relativity" suggests that mental phenomena are _conditioned_ by the brain, but do not _emerge_ from it. Rather, the entire natural world of mind and matter, subjects and objects, arises from a unitary dimension of reality that is more fundamental than these dualities, as (...) proposed by Wolfgang Pauli and Carl Jung. To test his hypothesis, Wallace employs the Buddhist meditative practice of _samatha_, refining one's attention and metacognition, to create a kind of telescope to examine the space of the mind. Drawing on the work of the physicist John Wheeler, he then proposes a more general theory in which the participatory nature of reality is envisioned as a self-excited circuit. In comparing these ideas to the Buddhist theory known as the Middle Way philosophy, Wallace explores further aspects of his "general theory of ontological relativity," which can be investigated by means of _vipasyana_, or insight, meditation. Wallace then focuses on the theme of symmetry in reference to quantum cosmology and the "problem of frozen time," relating these issues to the theory and practices of the Great Perfection school of Tibetan Buddhism. He concludes with a discussion of the general theme of complementarity as it relates to science and religion. The theories of relativity and quantum mechanics were major achievements in the physical sciences, and the theory of evolution has had an equally deep impact on the life sciences. However, rigorous scientific methods do not yet exist to observe mental phenomena, and naturalism has its limits for shedding light on the workings of the mind. A pioneer of modern consciousness research, Wallace offers a practical and revolutionary method for exploring the mind that combines the keenest insights of contemporary physicists and philosophers with the time-honored meditative traditions of Buddhism. (shrink)

The primary objective of this research is to establish the extent to which small and medium-sized businesses in the Ha’il region benefit from a significant competitive advantage brought about by an entrepreneurial mindset. To achieve these objectives, the study used a questionnaire to collect data. A total of 220 SMEs in the Ha’il region were surveyed. The participants completed an online self-administered survey and used the PLS-SEM technique. The researchers found a robust link between differentiation advantage and higher levels of (...) innovativeness, proactiveness, risk-taking, competitive aggression, and autonomy. In addition, the outcomes of the survey reveal that a greater cost advantage is substantially associated with vastly greater innovativeness, proactiveness, risk-taking, and competitive aggression overall. However, cost advantage is not strongly correlated with autonomy. These findings are significant because they shed new light on how competitive advantages are formed through the entrepreneurial orientation of entrepreneurs in the Ha’il region. This is a significant theoretical contribution to the literature on entrepreneurial orientation, specifically in the context of SMEs. The findings may also be valuable in supporting SMEs in being successful by enhancing their competitiveness, as SMEs are key contributors to the development and growth of the economy. (shrink)

Do psychological traits predict philosophical views? We administered the PhilPapers Survey, created by David Bourget and David Chalmers, which consists of 30 views on central philosophical topics (e.g., epistemology, ethics, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of language) to a sample of professional philosophers (N = 314). We extended the PhilPapers survey to measure a number of psychological traits, such as personality, numeracy, well-being, lifestyle, and life experiences. We also included non-technical ‘translations’ of these views for eventual use in other (...) populations. We found limited to no support for the notion that personality or demographics predict philosophical views. We did, however, find that some psychological traits were predictive of philosophical views, even after strict correction for multiple comparisons. Findings include: higher interest in numeracy predicted physicalism, naturalism, and consequentialism; lower levels of well-being and higher levels of mental illness predicted hard determinism; using substances such as psychedelics and marijuana predicted non-realist and subjectivist views of morality and aesthetics; having had a transformative or self-transcendent experience predicted theism and idealism. We discuss whether or not these empirical results have philosophical implications, while noting that 68% of our sample of professional philosophers indicated that such findings would indeed have philosophical value. (shrink)

Verse 4:34 of the Qur'an has historically been interpreted to give husbands authority over their wives. Even today, such as in a recent case in the United Arab Emirates, Islamic courts have held that the husband has some leeway in "disciplining" wives who act in a rebellious manner to their husbands. This article challenges this interpretation through a comprehensive legal analysis, taking into account the context under which the verse came about, including the societal norms and conditions of the time; (...) the Prophet Muhammad’s profound views against violence towards women; the values of marriage emphasized in the Qur’an; the Qur’an’s incremental approach to improving social behavior and practice; and the higher objectives of Islamic law. (shrink)

Corporations are facing a growing demand for the transparency of political contributions. In the United States, this demand has largely focused on the implementation of a mandatory disclosure law. It rests on the assumption that legal enforcement can make it easier to observe the ties between corporations and political parties. In this study, I challenge this assumption. I build my case by first developing a conceptual foundation of corporate political transparency. I argue that in the absence of economic benefits, legal (...) enforcement has a limited effect on CPT. Instead of encouraging transparency, mandatory disclosure can lead to the concealment of corporate political contributions. To develop a model of concealment, I borrow the characterizations of disguise from theatrical drama. Using the context of Indian firms, I show the limitation of mandatory disclosure and the efficacy of regulatory incentive. My study highlights the need for a broader debate on CPT to understand the relative implications of regulatory policies. (shrink)

On Averroes, 1126-1198; papers presented at a symposium, Cairo, 1994.

Bridging the gap between the world of science and the realm of the spiritual, B. Alan Wallace introduces a natural theory of human consciousness that has its roots in contemporary physics and Buddhism. Wallace's "special theory of ontological relativity" suggests that mental phenomena are _conditioned_ by the brain, but do not _emerge_ from it. Rather, the entire natural world of mind and matter, subjects and objects, arises from a unitary dimension of reality that is more fundamental than these dualities, as (...) proposed by Wolfgang Pauli and Carl Jung. To test his hypothesis, Wallace employs the Buddhist meditative practice of _samatha_, refining one's attention and metacognition, to create a kind of telescope to examine the space of the mind. Drawing on the work of the physicist John Wheeler, he then proposes a more general theory in which the participatory nature of reality is envisioned as a self-excited circuit. In comparing these ideas to the Buddhist theory known as the Middle Way philosophy, Wallace explores further aspects of his "general theory of ontological relativity," which can be investigated by means of _vipasyana_, or insight, meditation. Wallace then focuses on the theme of symmetry in reference to quantum cosmology and the "problem of frozen time," relating these issues to the theory and practices of the Great Perfection school of Tibetan Buddhism. He concludes with a discussion of the general theme of complementarity as it relates to science and religion. The theories of relativity and quantum mechanics were major achievements in the physical sciences, and the theory of evolution has had an equally deep impact on the life sciences. However, rigorous scientific methods do not yet exist to observe mental phenomena, and naturalism has its limits for shedding light on the workings of the mind. A pioneer of modern consciousness research, Wallace offers a practical and revolutionary method for exploring the mind that combines the keenest insights of contemporary physicists and philosophers with the time-honored meditative traditions of Buddhism. (shrink)

The article is devoted to the nature of science. To what extent are science and mathematics affected by the society in which they are developed? Philosophy of science has accepted the social influence on science, but limits it only to the context of discovery (a "locational" approach). An opposite "attributive" approach states that any part of science may be so influenced. L. Graham is sure that even the mathematical equations at the core of fundamental physical theories may display social attributes. (...) He has used the investigations of the famous Soviet physicist V. Fock on the General Theory of Relativity which were under the influence of Marxism. The Goal of the article is to demonstrate: 1) Why Soviet science is not an appropriate subject-matter for testing the thesis of social constructivism, 2) That differnt levels of science and different stages in the development of science undergo social influences in different degrees ranging from very significant and unavoidable to absolutely trivial and easy eliminated. (shrink)

Peace is a universal ideal, but its political life is a great paradox: "peace" is the opposite of war, but it also enables war. If peace is the elimination of war, then what does it mean to wage war for the sake of peace? What does peace mean when some say that they are committed to it but that their enemies do not value it? Why is it that associating peace with other ideals, like justice, friendship, security, and law, does (...) little to distance peace from war? Although political theory has dealt extensively with most major concepts that today define "the political" it has paid relatively scant critical attention to peace, the very concept that is often said to be the major aim and ideal of humanity. In War for Peace, Murad Idris looks at the ways that peace has been treated across the writings of ten thinkers from ancient and modern political thought, from Plato to Immanuel Kant and Sayyid Qutb, to produce an original and striking account of what peace means and how it works. Idris argues that peace is parasitical in that the addition of other ideals into peace, such as law, security, and friendship, reduces it to consensus and actually facilitates war; it is provincial in that its universalized content reflects particularistic desires and fears, constructions of difference, and hierarchies within humanity; and it is polemical, in that its idealization is not only the product of antagonisms, but also enables hostility. War for Peace uncovers the basis of peace's moralities and the political functions of its idealizations, historically and into the present. This bold and ambitious book confronts readers with the impurity of peace as an ideal, and the pressing need to think beyond universal peace. (shrink)

O artigo apresenta uma visão panorâmica dos documentos da Conferência dos Bispos latino-americanos, realizada em Medellín, no ano de 1968. Inicialmente, distingue o Medellín histórico do Medellín simbólico. A seguir, recorda como Assembleia foi bem preparada e se realizou de forma participativa. Então, demonstra a relação de continuidade com o Vaticano II. De outro lado, Medellín não foi uma mera aplicação do Concílio, mas sim uma recepção criativa. No núcleo do artigo, demonstra-se como o método VER-JULGAR-AGIR foi utilizado nos vários (...) documentos de Medellín, alocados em três eixos: promoção humana, evangelização e crescimento da fé, Igreja visível e suas estruturas. Por fim, ele se detém em dois documentos: Pobreza na Igreja e Liturgia. Encerra-se com algumas conclusões abertas, de caráter pastoral. (shrink)

One of the exciting developments in political theory in the last decades is that the boundaries of the discipline gradually but vigorously expanded beyond “the West,” as evident in the rise of work that is often labeled “comparative.” Basic to this shift is the recognition that various thinkers, ideas, and contexts—usually marked as “non-Western”—have been peripheral to, and remain marginalized in, the discipline of political theory. However, the discipline’s framing of the “comparative” as the study of “non-Western political thought” tends (...) to take for granted the boundary between “West” and “non-West.” The primacy of this assumed correspondence between “comparative” and “non-Western” is most visible and problematic in the ongoing institutionalization of the “comparative turn.” I understand comparative political theory as an immanent critique of political theory: the discipline presents itself as global, but in practice it is too often confined to studying a few places, histories, and bodies of knowledge. The “comparative” calls for political theorists to more reliably study politics and power anywhere. To take “comparative” to mean the study of equivalent, coherent forms of “non-Western” otherness is to elide the historicity of “the Western” and the ways in which it has been made in relation to non-Europeans. (shrink)

This article aims to respond to the long-lived perceived incompatibility between care and compassion and justice in organizational literature. It is argued that principles of care and compassion and principles of justice are compatible with each other and can be integrated in organizations in such a way that both will supplement each other. Previous researches tend to view concepts of care and compassion and justice either as competing or inheriting some fundamental trade-offs. This article argues that the highlighted incompatibility between (...) care and compassion and justice is mainly due to the limited understanding about the nature of organizational justice. Care and compassion carry elements of subjectivity and are dynamic in nature, whereas literature on organizational justice has described justice as an objective, static and linear construct due to which an incompatibility between these two very important phenomena is prevailing. This incompatibility can be removed by changing the way of looking at organizational justice and by exploring its dynamic nature. (shrink)

The rapid growth of covert activities via communications network brought about an increasing need to provide an efficient method for data hiding to protect secret information from malicious attacks. One of the options is to combine two approaches, namely steganography and compression. However, its performance heavily relies on three major factors, payload, imperceptibility, and robustness, which are always in trade-offs. Thus, this study aims to hide a large amount of secret message inside a grayscale host image without sacrificing its quality (...) and robustness. To realize the goal, a new two-tier data hiding technique is proposed that integrates an improved exploiting modification direction method and Huffman coding. First, a secret message of an arbitrary plain text of characters is compressed and transformed into streams of bits; each character is compressed into a maximum of 5 bits per stream. The stream is then divided into two parts of different sizes of 3 and 2 bits. Subsequently, each part is transformed into its decimal value, which serves as a secret code. Second, a cover image is partitioned into groups of 5 pixels based on the original EMD method. Then, an enhancement is introduced by dividing the group into two parts, namely k1 and k2, which consist of 3 and 2 pixels, respectively. Furthermore, several groups are randomly selected for embedding purposes to increase the security. Then, for each selected group, each part is embedded with its corresponding secret code by modifying one grayscale value at most to hide the code in a -ary notational system. The process is repeated until a stego-image is eventually produced. Finally, the χ2 test, which is considered one of the most severe attacks, is applied against the stego-image to evaluate the performance of the proposed method in terms of its robustness. The test revealed that the proposed method is more robust than both least significant bit embedding and the original EMD. Additionally, in terms of imperceptibility and capacity, the experimental results have also shown that the proposed method outperformed both the well-known methods, namely original EMD and optimized EMD, with a peak signal-to-noise ratio of 55.92 dB and payload of 52,428 bytes. (shrink)

Atrial natriuretic peptides appear to elicit their actions in some target tissues by binding to a novel cell‐surface transmembrane protein which possesses both peptide binding and guanylate cyclase activities. Ligand binding stimulates enzyme activity to produce increased intracellular concentrations of cyclic GMP which, in turn, mediates the cell's physiological response.

The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Political Theory provides an entry point into this burgeoning field by both synthesizing and challenging the terms that motivate it. The handbook demonstrates how mainstream political theory can and must be enriched through attention to genuinely global, rather than parochially Euro-American, contributions to political thinking. Entries emphasize exploration of substantive questions about political life-ranging from domination to political economy to the politics of knowledge-in a range of global contexts, with attention to whether and how those (...) questions may be shared, contested, or reformulated across differences of time, space, and experience. They connect comparative political theory to cognate disciplines including postcolonial theory, area studies, and comparative politics. Creative organizational tools such as tags and keywords aid in navigation of the handbook to help readers trace disruptions, thematic connections, contrasts, and geographic affinities across entries. (shrink)

Massimiliano Tomba's Insurgent Universality locates an “alternative legacy of modernity” in how revolutionary movements across three centuries and four continents interpreted and claimed different pasts, concepts, and alternatives for themselves. These movements, from the Communards to the Zapatistas to the Russian Revolutionaries, engaged in democratic experiments in self-government, radical equality, and collective possession. In this forum, Tomba's interlocutors offer reflections and questions about the position of the critical historian, universality, and colonialism. Tomba's response explains the stakes of his project with (...) two further examples of his historiographic practice. (shrink)

This article studies the politics and ethics in Ibn Ṭufayl’s twelfth-century allegory, Risālat Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān. I discuss this allegory alongside Ibn Sīnā’s own Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān and Absāl and Salāmān, first, to show that their representations of politics are not reducible to epistemology, and second, to argue that Ibn Ṭufayl inverts the political principles depicted in Ibn Sīnā’s two tales. The paper focuses on how the characters in each allegory interact with one another, and it reconstructs the neglected politics (...) and ethics of the allegories’ seemingly minor characters. I argue that in Ibn Tufayl’s descriptions of Ḥayy’s failure to convert the neighboring islanders, the islanders consistently act in accordance with three political ideals: association, hospitality, and friendship. The islanders’ reactions to Ḥayy’s arrival and to his attempts to ‘educate’ them show each of these ideals broken down into an antinomy. Ibn Tufayl’s critique of these political ideals turns on their internal potential for self-subversion. (shrink)

In recent decades, the trope that classical Muslim thinkers anticipated or influenced modern European thought has provided an easy endorsement of their contemporary relevance. This article studies how Arab editors and intellectuals, from 1882 to 1947, understood the twelfth-century Andalusian philosopher Ibn Ṭufayl, and Arabo-Islamic philosophy generally. This modern generation of Arab scholars also attached significance to classical Arabic texts as precursors to modern European thought. They invited readers to retrospectively identify with Ibn Ṭufayl and his treatise, Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān. (...) Comparisons of Ibn Ṭufayl to European thinkers, and re-presentations of Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān as the precedent or genesis of European thought, facilitated these editors’ global imaginaries, anti-colonial projects and political fantasies. This article tracks these projects and fantasies through the afterlife of Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān from early printings and generalist surveys to later editions and studies, as Ibn Ṭufayl’s significance became sutured into his imagined importance for Europe, and for going beyond Europe. (shrink)

The late Jacob Klein’s important book is, remarkably, a lucid presentation of esoteric argument. Dealing with the famed Platonic triad, Theaetetus, Sophist, and Statesman, Klein settles the dispute about the missing dialogue, "The Philosopher," by first denying that it is missing and second showing that it is unnecessary. He argues, in short, that the triad is a dyad. That argument is reinforced by the distinction Klein strongly implies between the Socratic Theaetetus and the Eleatic Sophist and Statesman. "We can now (...) understand why the conversations of the ‘trilogy’ occur in two, not three, days and why the Sophist, the Statesman, and the Philosopher are dealt with in two, not three, dialogues". (shrink)

Digital piracy is costly to creative economies across the world. Studies indicate that anti-piracy messages can cause people to pirate more rather than less, suggesting the presence of psychological reactance. A gender gap in piracy behavior and attitudes towards piracy has been reported in the literature. By contrast, gender differences in message reactance and the moderating impact of attitudes have not been explored. This paper uses evolutionary psychology as a theoretical framework to examine whether messages based on real-world anti-piracy campaigns (...) cause reactance and whether this effect is explained by gender and pre-existing attitudes. An experiment compares one prosocial and two threatening messages against a control group to analyze changes in piracy intention from past behavior for digital TV/film. Results indicate that the prosocial message has no significant effect, whereas the threatening messages have significantly opposing effects on men and women. One threatening message influences women to reduce their piracy intentions by over 50% and men to increase it by 18%. We find that gender effects are moderated by pre-existing attitudes, as men and women who report the most favorable attitudes towards piracy tend to demonstrate the most polarized changes in piracy intentions. The practical implications of the results are that men and women process threatening messages differently, therefore behavioral change messages should be carefully targeted to each gender. Explicitly, threatening messages may be effective on women, but may have the reverse effect on men with strong favorable attitudes towards the target behavior. (shrink)

In this paper I shall be looking at the state of science before and after the 17th century especially with regard to the question of the nature of scientific knowledge, specifically scientific paradigms. I will argue that some of the major differences between modern science and pre-modern science are due to (i) methodological changes, (ii) the rise of paradigmatic monism in modern science as opposed to paradigmatic pluralism in pre-modern science, (iii) the integration of science with technology after the 17th (...) century. These changes, I maintain, also redefine the role of scientific knowledge in society and culture, and bring in its wake certain problems and challenges, which in turn elicit different types of responses. Pre-modern science, I argue, are admirably suited to play a cultural and religious role, partly because of a lack of a pragmatic criterion of knowledge, and the emphasis on rational coherence. This makes enchantment of nature through science, possible. However, with the further evolution of science, especially the introduction of the experimental method and the emphasis on empiricism in the 17th century, scientific knowledge now has to conform to different criteria of knowledge -pragmatic in partleading to 'paradigmatic monism' and the consequent loss of enchantment in our conception of nature. The rise of the new science beginning in the 17th century thus brings in its wake a new set of epistemological and cultural challenges which were met with in different ways. I will then comment on the different types of responses made against the rise of the new science. (shrink)

In this paper I shall be looking at the state of science before and after the 17th century especially with regard to the question of the nature of scientific knowledge, specifically scientific paradigms. I will argue that some of the major differences between modern science and pre-modern science are due to (i) methodological changes, (ii) the rise of paradigmatic monism in modern science as opposed to paradigmatic pluralism in pre-modern science, (iii) the integration of science with technology after the 17th (...) century. These changes, I maintain, also redefine the role of scientific knowledge in society and culture, and bring in its wake certain problems and challenges, which in turn elicit different types of responses. Pre-modern science, I argue, are admirably suited to play a cultural and religious role, partly because of a lack of a pragmatic criterion of knowledge, and the emphasis on rational coherence. This makes enchantment of nature through science, possible. However, with the further evolution of science, especially the introduction of the experimental method and the emphasis on empiricism in the 17th century, scientific knowledge now has to conform to different criteria of knowledge -pragmatic in partleading to 'paradigmatic monism' and the consequent loss of enchantment in our conception of nature. The rise of the new science beginning in the 17th century thus brings in its wake a new set of epistemological and cultural challenges which were met with in different ways. I will then comment on the different types of responses made against the rise of the new science. (shrink)

The _Platform Sutra_ records the teachings of Hui-neng, the Sixth Patriarch, who is revered as one of the two great figures in the founding of Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism. This translation is the definitive English version of the eighth-century Ch'an classic. Phillip B. Yampolsky has based his translation on the Tun-huang manuscript, the earliest extant version of the work. A critical edition of the Chinese text is given at the end of the volume. Dr. Yampolsky also furnishes a lengthy and detailed (...) historical introduction which contains much information hitherto unavailable even to scholars, and provides the context essential to an understanding of Hui-neng's work. He gives an account of the history and legends of Ch'an Buddhism, with particular attention to the traditions associated with Hui-neng, quoting or summarizing the most important narratives. He then discusses the various texts of the _Platform Sutra_, and analyzes its contents. (shrink)

İslam hukukun temel ilkelerinin yazımında ve beyanında usûlcülerin yöntemleri farklıdır. Şîrâzî, fıkıh usûlünde birçok kitap telif etmiş, şöhreti yayılmış bir usûlcüdür. Bu çalışmada Şîrâzî’nin ve onun en önemli kitaplarından olan “el-Luma’ fî usûli’l-fıkh”ın tanıtımı yapılacak ardından yönteminin en belirleyici özellikleri ve kitabının içeriğini sunma yaklaşımı açıklanacaktır. Böylece uygulamalı bir şekilde mensup olduğu fıkhî ekolün ayırt edici özelliklerinin tesbiti yapılacaktır. Araştırmanın neticesinde Şîrâzî’nin mütekellim metodunu takip ettiği sonucuna varılmıştır. Eserinde fıkıh usûlünün bir dizi teriminin tanıtımına ve usûl kaidelerinin beyanına yer vermesi, (...) onları farklı kanıtlarla doğrulaması ve kaleme alması metodunun belirleyici özelliklerindendir. Şîrâzî, akli, nakli ve dilin delaleti olmak üzere farklı deliller kullanır. Selefin araştırdıkları konuları nakledip kapsamlı bir incelemeyle tartışmalı konuları aktarır. Furu’u fıkıh konularına veciz bir şekilde, sadece temel kaideleri açıklaması ve örnek olması açısından değinir. Eserinde fıkıh usûlü konularına ayrıntılı bir şekilde yer verir ancak kelamî konulara yer vermez. Şîrâzî’nin görüşlerinin kesin delillerle desteklenmesi fikrî bağımsızlığına işarettir. O, araştırmasında tarafsız ve bağımsızdır. Herhangi bir mezhep taassubu düşüncesi yoktur. İhtilaflı meselelerde muhaliflerin delillerini zikretmemesinden ötürü eleştirilmiştir. Eseri bazı meseleler hariç fıkıh usûlünün bütün konularını şamildir. Alanında faydalı ve ulemanın istifade ettiği bir eserdir. (shrink)

İnsan hürriyyeti mefhumunun asırdan asıra değişen bir manası vardır. Bu mesele,selef ulemanın yanında cebir ve ihtiyar konusu olarak biliniyordu. Daha sonraları bu mesele genişleyerek tesyîrve tahyîr meselesi olarak isimlendirilmiştir. Modern çağda ise âlimler bu konuyu insan hürriyeti ismi altında ele almışlardır. Her fırkanın kendine has bir görüşü vardır. Varoluşçuluk felsefecileri de hürriyet hakkında konuşmuşlardır ve hatta şunu da söylemişlerdir: “Hürriyet, insanın maddi vücudiyetinin cevheridir.” Bu araştırmada bizzat bu düşünce münakaşa edilecektir. Bunu münakaşa etmeden önce de varoluşçuluk ve varoluşçuların ne olduğunu, (...) en önemli düşüncelerini bilmek gerekir. Bu konudan sonra da Şeyh Muhammed Said Ramazan el-Bûtî’nin onlara olan cevabı ve en önemli düşüncelerine olan eleştirisi ele alınmaktadır. Ta ki sonuç kısmına ulaşana kadar: Hürriyet, insanın maddi vücudiyetinin cevheri midir yoksa değil mi? (shrink)