A mobile-based messaging app (MMA) was implemented as a teachers’ community of practice in the Indian context through a large-scale educational initiative. The development process adopted a Design-based Research approach to test underlying theories in real-world settings. The researchers theorised the pedagogical affordances of the MMA Telegram using Davis and Chouinard's theoretical framework of affordances, defined as a relational process among users, designers, the environment, and the artefact. This paper discusses the iterative design process in detail. The findings showed that (...) the MMA encourages accessibility and for teachers to showcase their practice in the online community of practice and refuses (does not allow) the development of the online community of practice as an epistemic community. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Pains And Gains Of Rural Health Practice:Lessons Books Never TaughtSridevi Seetharam, Bindu Balasubramaniam, G. S. Kumar, and M. R. SeetharamHow The Journey BeganIn the early 1980s, as fresh graduates from Mysore Medical College in southern India, we were brimming with a zeal to "cure the sick" and "change the world." We had an ideal of evidence-based, rational, ethical and equitable health care and set out to serve rural (...) and under-served communities which included displaced forest-based tribes. In the initial years, with the naivety of the inexperienced, we believed that by correcting the dehydration of the doe-eyed six-year-old Mare and giving her a free course of antibiotics, we had made health care accessible to her. Much to our dismay, within a month, Mare was back in the outpatient clinic, with diarrhea all over again and looking thinner than ever. We realized that it was a losing battle to keep her healthy as long as she continued to drink water from the same contaminated stream, live in unhygienic surroundings, and eat only the paltry meals that her family could barely afford. We gradually began to connect these living examples to what our preventive medicine text books had stressed all along—there are many social determinants of health which, if left unaddressed, do not permit realization of the vision of health for all.Such instances continually pulled us out of the hospital building and into the villages and tribal hamlets. We discovered that our textbook of Preventive and Social Medicine (Park, 1986) (P&SM as we used to call it), was our most valuable possession. [End Page 106] We devoured the descriptions of national health programs, sanitation procedures, water treatment protocols, and maintenance of cold chain for vaccines with a completely new perspective. We discovered the Manual of Basic Techniques for a Health Laboratory, (World Health Organization, 1980) detailing how to set up a laboratory with low cost, reliable and simple methods. We learned to drive a jeep to haul supplies and patients. To step up the level of clinical care, some of us pursued post-graduate programs and equipped ourselves to provide more specialized care too. It has been over two decades since we embarked on this journey. We have encountered a variety of perplexing dilemmas with no clear solutions. We have sometimes been compelled to adopt health practices that were not really evidence-based, seemingly irrational, inequitable and even downright unethical. This narration describes only a few of our thousands of cases, and hopefully conveys our periods of self-doubt, despair and hope, as well as, the challenges we face to reconcile with the difficult choices we are forced to make every day.Unforeseen Challenges in Saving Mothers and ChildrenHigh maternal and child mortality rates have been one of the most disturbing aspects of the health care scenario in rural India. To ensure immunization of all children, health workers with vaccine carriers go from village to village and hamlet to hamlet to reach those infants that would have missed visits to the immunization clinics. Our grass-root workers facilitate these visits by identifying households with such children. Occasionally, they encounter families who spirit away the infant into the adjoining woods as soon as the health worker is seen approaching, and blandly proclaim that the child is not at home. Despite reassurance and counseling about the safety and necessity of the vaccine, their apprehensions and misconceptions are insurmountable. What is the extent of the responsibility of the health worker? Is it ethical to hunt down the child and force the administration of the vaccine in view of the public health gains, besides the child's welfare?A few months ago, a pre-term neonate was admitted to our hospital, but worsened and needed referral to a higher centre in the city. The family refused to go despite repeated persuasion and detailed explanation about the technical limitations of care at our centre. From the family's perspective, the variety of social, cultural, and monetary challenges they would face in the city were themselves limitations for care. We were compelled to retain the baby and continue giving the best care we could.Two... (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:The Ambedkar-Gandhi Debate: On Identity, Community and Justice by Bindu PuriMeena Dhanda (bio)The Ambedkar-Gandhi Debate: On Identity, Community and Justice. By Bindu Puri. Singapore: Springer, 2022. Pp. xv + 266, Paper $119.90, ISBN 978-981-16-8685-6.Written from a philosophical perspective, this ambitious book by Professor Bindu Puri draws attention to an old and well know opposition between two great minds of the last century. The distance between (...) Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869--1948) and Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar (1891--1956) surfaced in the political domain when both were engaged in challenging British colonial rule in their respective, unique, and often opposing ways. Faced with a common enemy from whom political independence was sought, both Indian leaders battled with each other to define the meaning of that independence for the masses they represented. How would independence from the British bring freedom and equality to the most underprivileged? Both drew on their understanding of India’s past: Gandhi at pains to revise, reform, and rewrite his complex inheritance with an eye to continuity, and Ambedkar labouring to extract and underline the undeniable, inescapable core, the scourge of caste, which the republic of India would have to break from if genuine freedom and equality were to become attainable goals.Puri’s book addresses these conflicting notions of the past and builds two incommensurable world views underpinning their political positions, thus presenting the political and intellectual rivalry between Gandhi and Ambedkar as ultimately irreconcilable. Their world views are distilled by defining the relationship between underlying conceptions of the self, community and justice. These form the foci of five chapters, each elaborating the difference between the two thinkers. A broad framework of a binary opposition between the “modern” (Ambedkar) and the “Indic” (Gandhi), inspired by authors like D.R. Nagraj and Ashish Nandy, is followed, occasionally allowing for seepage of common elements from one to the other. It is a significant feature of their life histories that both Gandhi and Ambedkar were trained as lawyers, both studied outside British India, and both returned to practice law in British India. In my view, their “modern” training shaped the argumentative methods deployed by both, albeit, when writing in the vernacular, Ambedkar (in Marathi) and Gandhi (in Gujarati), both used appeals to “native” intelligence in dissimilar ways. Ambedkar did not spare the sphere of the “sacred” from critical scrutiny, whereas Gandhi was careful to protect the “sacred” from criticism. [End Page 1]The book makes extensive use of a distinction between “itihaas” and history, borrowed from an essay by Ajay Skaria (2010), “The Strange Violence of Satyagraha: Gandhi, Itihaas, and History.” Both notions are meant to encapsulate the “past,” but apparently in different ways. This crucial distinction, stressing on the meaning of “itihaas” as “it so happened” introduced in Chapter 1 (p. 2) is followed by its extensive deployment in Chapter 2 (pp. 25-53), where Skaria’s essay is first referenced (p. 33). Many of the key references to Gandhi’s writings in this chapter are strikingly identical with those used by Skaria (2010). He, however, has used his own translations of the original Gujarati text of Hind Swaraj into English, carefully explaining the differences between his and Gandhi’s translations into English, but Puri has relied on either the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi or Hind Swaraj and Other Writings (ed. Anthony Parel). A long quotation from Veyne (1984) seems to be taken from Skaria’s essay—all the ellipses are exactly where Skaria placed them. The interlinkages between key Gandhian concepts—e.g., between satyagraha and atmabal; the importance of “singularity” for itihaas; khaas lakshan and humanity; unilateral obligation (ekpakshi farj); ownmost orientation (swabhava)—are all found in Skaria (2010). The reliance on Ajay Skaria’s interpretations of Gandhi’s idea of samadarshan (seeing things with an equal eye), especially in the context of the Bhagwad Gita continues in chapter 4 (pp. 152-160), in her discussion of “absolute equality,” only this time it is with reference to Skaria’s (2016) Unconditional Equality: Gandhi’s Religion of Resistance.The comparison of Gandhi’s reading of the Gita with orthodox readings by Tilak and Ramanujan (apparently also derived from... (shrink)

The Primacy of God, the notion of justice toward God is seldom considered and often foreign. Far more discussed is how God might either undermine or motivate social justice. The Primacy of God by R. Jared Staudt offers an important intervention. With the aid of St. Thomas Aquinas, Staudt argues that it is vital for both contemporary society and contemporary Catholic theology to return to the traditional view of God as the one to whom all human and social action must (...) be ordered and to recover the virtue of religion as the virtue which orders all other virtues to God. Not only does Staudt helpfully remind readers of the ancient philosophical and biblical notion of worship as a dictate of the natural law, he also illuminates the way in which Christian liturgy, as an enactment of Christ's high priesthood, is the great fulfillment of natural and biblical worship. Accordingly, Staudt secures religion as essential for the virtue of love. This brings Staudt to criticize modern theologians like Karl Barth, who claimed that religion is inherently idolatrous, as well as Karl Rahner, who claimed that love of neighbor is the highest moral act. Staudt also considers the question of religious truth in light of the plurality of religions, soliciting the assistance of Hans Urs von Balthasar and Joseph Ratzinger, as well as the way in which religion relates to the development of culture, engaging the great Catholic social historian Christopher Dawson. The Primacy of God is a much-needed work that ought to set the agenda for Catholic theology in the twenty-first century. (shrink)

1. Tasan ŭi kyŏnghak kwa yŏkhak -- 2. Tasanhak chʻongnon -- 3. Tasanhak kwa mongmin simsŏ -- 4. Sirhak sasang kwa Han sasang -- 5.Kaesin yuhak ŭro pon Hanʼguk chʻŏrhaksa -- 6. Kugyŏk Tasan sasŏ -- 7. Sasang uĭhak kwa saengmyŏng ŭihangnon -- 8. Hanʼguk munhwa ŭi insik, kugyŏkkanyangnok -- 9. Chamnok, susangnok, purok.

In the context of increased movement across borders, this book examines how key cultural texts and concepts are transferred between nations and languages as well as across different media. The texts examined in this book are considered fundamental to their source culture and can also take on a particular relevance to other cultures. The chapters investigate cultural transfers and differences realised through translation and reflect critically upon the implications of these with regard to matters of cultural identity. The book offers (...) an important contribution to cultural approaches in translation studies, with ramifications across different disciplines, including literary studies, history, philosophy, and gender studies. The chapters offer a range of cultural and methodological frameworks and are written by scholars from a variety of language and cultural backgrounds, Western and Eastern. (shrink)

A Hilbert-style version of an implicational logic can be represented by a set of axiom schemes and modus ponens or by the corresponding axioms, modus ponens and substitution. Certain logics, for example the intuitionistic implicational logic, can also be represented by axioms and the rule of condensed detachment, which combines modus ponens with a minimal form of substitution. Such logics, for example intuitionistic implicational logic, are said to be D-complete. For certain weaker logics, the version based on condensed detachment and (...) axioms (the condensed version of the logic) is weaker than the original. In this paper we prove that the relevant logic T→, and any logic of which this is a sublogic, is D-complete. (shrink)

Eine phänomenologische Analyse des Selbstbewusstseins erbringt den Nachweis, dass die Selbsterfahrung stets eine Erfahrung des Selbstverlusts impliziert. Dieser Befund beruht auf der richtig verstandenen Intentionalität bzw. Transzendenz des Subjekts. Diese These wird im vorliegenden Artikel vor allem mit dem Hinweis auf die Phänomene des moralischen Gewissens, der synthetischen Funktion des Ich, der differenziellen Struktur von Selbstbezug und Selbstrepräsentation, sowie der leiblich bestimmten, affektiven Selbsterfahrung illustriert. Bereits bei Kant ist die Selbstgesetzgebung des moralischen Subjekts die Folge eines Aufrufs durch das Gesetz. (...) Autonomie schliesst somit eine besondere Form der vernunftmässigen Heteronomie nicht aus. Die ursprüngliche Form der moralischen Selbsterfahrung liegt nicht in der ausdrücklichen Ausrichtung des Subjekts auf das Gesetz, sondern im Hören auf das Gesetz, nicht in der allgemeinen Rechtfertigung des eigenen Handelns, sondern im individuellen Gewissen. Unter Hinweis auf Heidegger, Freud und Lacan wird anschliessend aufgezeigt, dass das Subjekt für sich selbst ein Fremdes bleibt. Selbsterfahrung bedeutet Erfahrung der eigenen Verlorenheit im alltäglichen Besorgen, in unbewussten Wünschen und in der Anonymität der Sprache. Selbsterfahrung impliziert somit die Aufgabe einer Selbstfindung und einer Vereinigung mit sich selbst. Es handelt sich dabei jedoch um eine unendliche Aufgabe, da jede Selbsterfahrung des endlichen Subjekts einen neuen Selbstverlust impliziert. Das Selbst des Subjekts ist somit eine Einheit bzw. Identität, welche die Differenz mit sich selbst nicht aufhebt, sondern stets von neuem ins Spiel bringt. Diese differenzielle Struktur der Selbstrepräsentation und die darin implizierte Form der Selbstverantwortung spielt vor allem im Werk von Derrida eine wichtige Rolle. Jede subjektive Selbsterfahrung ist in der menschlichen Affektivität verwurzelt. Ich erfahre mich selbst, wenn ich getroffen und berührt werde und zwar nicht durch mich selbst, sondern durch ein anderes das mich be-trifft. Im Gefühl und in der Rührung entsteht ein leibliches Selbst, das von je her durch das andere angesprochen und in Anspruch genommen wird. Dies gilt nicht nur für die Sexualität, sondern für alle anderen, bereits erwähnten Formen der Selbsterfahrung einschliesslich das moralische Gewissen. Der Leib als „Organ des Willens "ist zugleich und zuerst ein sinnlicher Leib. (shrink)

It is a safe prediction that, especially now with cultural contacts freely flowing between East and West in both directions, the Hungarian thinker Istvan Bibo will soon be given full accolade as one of the most outstanding political theorists of this century, in stature equal to the �greats� in the entire European tradition of political thought. Bibo's significance far exceeds local, parochial interests. While profoundly original and organically stemming from Hungarian culture, Bibo belongs also to the �West�. If his political (...) thought is to be epitomized in one succinct phrase, it is �the realism of moralism�, or the almost flawless synthesis of a deeply radical, morally infused vision and value-system with the hard-nosed, unsentimental realist-s insight into enduring problems of politics and society. This synthesis is �almost� flawless: in the closing section of this article I will advance a few constructively critical remarks concerning some questionable points in the trajectory of Bibo's thought. (shrink)

The main purpose of this paper is to explore the reasons Aristotle gives for being able to use rhetorical argumentation, which is obviously not a scientific mode of expression. This faculty which was condemned by Plato as lacking morality, is paradoxically regarded by Aristotle as necessary on moral grounds. For, according to him, it would be blameworthy to keep silent when being verbally assailed. The necessity of rhetoric is, however, more deeply founded. First, because justice has to be saved from (...) its enemies in the City's courts of law. Secondly, because everyone has to be convicted to follow in practice the rules of the City's laws and such a conviction, in the case of the multitude, cannot be obtained by the means of scientific arguments. Thirdly and above all, because, in forensic disputes, characteristics of free political societies, the demagogic power, which regularly leads to tyrannical regimes, can only be avoided by the weapons of rhetoric. From these explanations, one does see that rhetoric, for Aristotle, seems to be the necessary substitute for ancient and traditional instruments securing obedience to legal justice, i.e. myths and pure constraint or coercion. In civilized and free political communities, rhetoric is required for civilization and freedom. (shrink)

A review‐article of Julius Stone, Legal System and Lawyers' Reasonings, Stanford, University Press Herbert Wechsler, Principles, Politics and Fundamental Law, Harvard University Press H. L. A. Hart, The Concept of Law, Oxford University Press Richard A. Wasserstrom, The Judicial Decision, Toward a Theory of Legal Justification, Stanford University Press Judith N. Shklar, Legalism, Harvard University Press.