Women are diagnosed with clinical depression at twice the rates as men. Treating depression through psychotherapy or medication both focus on changing an individual, rather than addressing socioecological influences or social roles. In the current study, participants read of systemic inequality contributing to differential rates of depression in either American men or women, or in two fictitious Australian First Nation groups. Participants then considered the acceptability and efficacy of treating depression through psychotherapy, medication, or social change. When socioecological inequities and (...) unequal social roles were presented through an unfamiliar foreign lens, participants were more likely to recognize the systemic unfairness, and endorsed social change more than psychotherapy or medication as a treatment strategy. However, when identical social inequities and social roles were presented through descriptions of American men and women, social intervention was less likely to be endorsed, and psychotherapy or medication gained in acceptability. Participants of color were also more likely to recognize and endorse social change as a strategy for treating depression, while those reporting a history of psychotropic medication for affective disorders rated medication as more effective and acceptable. (shrink)

This research engages with the problem of company–community conflict in mining. The inequitable distributions of risks, impacts, and benefits are key drivers of resource conflicts and are likely to remain at the forefront of mining-related research and advocacy. Procedural and interactional forms of justice therefore lie at the very heart of some of the real and ongoing challenges in mining, including: intractable local-level conflict; emerging global norms and performance standards; and ever-increasing expectations for the industry to translate high-level corporate social (...) responsibility policy into on-the-ground practice. This research focuses on the “process” aspects of resource conflicts through an examination of existing grievance-handling procedures at six mining operations where company–community conflict was present. In their current form, and on their own, the six mechanisms were found to be insufficient in their capacity to advance justice. The authors argue that if the overall objective of global norms is that companies construct and perform grievance handling in ways that strongly preference just practices, then “mechanisms-in-practice” must be better understood and constructively critiqued along all justice dimensions. (shrink)

Simple explanations are very often inadequate and can encourage faulty inferences. We examined college students’ explanations regarding illegal immigration to determine the prevalence of single-factor explanations. The form of students’ explanations was predicted by their responses on a simple three-item forced-choice multivariable causal reasoning task in which they selected the strongest evidence against a causal claim. In a further qualitative investigation of explanations by a sample of community adults, we identified positive features among those who scored high on this multivariable (...) causal reasoning task. We consider limitations of single-factor reasoning and means of encouraging more comprehensive explanations to support claims. (shrink)

Great effort is invested in identifying ways to change people's minds on an issue. A first priority should perhaps be enriching their thinking about the issue. With a goal of enriching their thinking, we studied the views of community adults on the DACA issue—young adults who entered the United States illegally as children. A dialogic method was employed, offering dual benefits in providing participants the opportunity to further develop their own ideas and to consider differing ideas. Yet, participants engaged in (...) dialog only vicariously by observing the talk of a pair of actors who held opposing positions on DACA. The effect on participants’ thinking was greatest in the condition in which they viewed a dialog between the two actors, rather than a comparison condition in which the actors individually expressed their positions. In control conditions, no presentation was observed. Probing questions included in all conditions encouraged a participant to examine and clarify for themselves their own position, potentially enriching it. This condition proved unsuccessful in enriching thinking; participants’ justifications for their own positions in fact became simpler and less qualified. In contrast, observing a video of a like-minded and opposing other did enrich observers’ thinking, yet to a greater degree in the dialogic than nondialogic condition. The findings thus suggest observed dialog as a promising practical approach in promoting deeper thinking. (shrink)

What does it take to argue well? The goal of this series of studies was to better understand the cognitive skills entailed in argument, and their course of development, isolated from the verbal and social demands that argumentive discourse also entails. Findings indicated that young adolescents are less able than adults to coordinate attention to both positions in an argument, an age-related pattern that parallels one found in discourse. Contributing to this weakness was inattention to the opposing position (in both (...) constrained and unconstrained formats), but not ability to address the opposing position when explicitly asked to do so. In addition to implementing the necessary dual focus, results point to the importance of developing epistemological understanding of the relevance of the opposing position to argument, as well as of the goals of argument more generally. The results also reflect the close parallels between dialogic and non-dialogic argument. (shrink)

In a recent paper, a “distance” function, $\cal D$ , was defined which measures the distance between pure classical and quantum systems. In this work, we present a new definition of a “distance”, D, which measures the distance between either pure or impure classical and quantum states. We also compare the new distance formula with the previous formula, when the latter is applicable. To illustrate these distances, we have used 2 × 2 matrix examples and two-dimensional vectors for simplicity and (...) clarity. Several specific examples are calculated. (shrink)

This article considers the question “Is There, Can There Be, such an Activity as World Humanities?” My response takes issue with the phrase “world humanity” that serves to legitimize a homogenizing process of globalization while simultaneously hiding from view the injustices and power imbalances that globalization creates. From my perspective as a Cree-Métis scholar, the world humanities are only valuable if they participate in the recuperation and protection of Indigenous stories—and by extension Indigenous languages and epistemes—that would require a reconsideration (...) of the definition and obligations of what it means to be human. (shrink)

Governance of biomedical research in the United States has been characterized by ethical individualism, a mode of reasoning that treats the individual person as the center of moral concern and analysis. However, genomics research raises ethics issues that uniquely affect certain genetically related communities as collectives, not merely as aggregates of individuals. This is especially true of identifiable populations—including Indigenous Peoples—that are often minoritized, socially marginalized, or geographically isolated. We propose an alternative, complementary framework based on the United Nations Declaration (...) on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) (2007), which explicitly recognizes both individual and collective rights. We use the CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance as a case study to show how this UNDRIP‐based framework can complement the individual‐focused national standard for research oversight represented by the Belmont principles, thereby better protecting Indigenous Peoples’ rights and interests in genomic data. (shrink)

This book is the culmination of over twenty years of work toward a pedagogical theory that promotes experiential learning of model-laden theory and inquiry in science.

Maqasid al-Shariah based Islamic bioethics is an Islamic bioethics concept which uses the objectives of the Shariah as its approach in analysing and assessing bioethical issues. Analysis based on maqasid al-Shariah based Islamic bioethics will examine any bioethical issues from three main aspects namely intention, method, and output or final goal of the studied issues. Then, the evaluation will be analysed from human interest hierarchy, inclusivity, and degree of certainty. The Islamic bioethics concept is a manifestation of dynamic Islamic jurisprudence (...) which can overcome new complex and complicated bioethical issues such as tri-parent baby technology issues. Therefore, this article will introduce and explain the concept of maqasid al-Shariah based Islamic bioethics and outline a general guidance of maqasid al-Shariah based Islamic bioethics to determine a maqṣad based on standards of human good or well-being and harm. (shrink)

In this paper an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model, for predicting the category of a tumor was developed and tested. Taking patients’ tests, a number of information gained that influence the classification of the tumor. Such information as age, sex, histologic-type, degree-of-diffe, status of bone, bone-marrow, lung, pleura, peritoneum, liver, brain, skin, neck, supraclavicular, axillar, mediastinum, and abdominal. They were used as input variables for the ANN model. A model based on the Multilayer Perceptron Topology was established and trained using (...) data set which its title is “primary tumor” and was obtained from the University Medical Centre, Institute of Oncology, Ljubljana, Yugoslavia Test data evaluation shows that the ANN model is able to correctly predict the tumor category with 76.67 % accuracy. (shrink)

This article draws on Foucault's concept of the exercise of power and Gramsci's concept of hegemony to examine how women used cosmetic surgery to exercise power over their bodies and lives. The analysis is rooted in two feminist perspectives on cosmetic surgery. The first argues that women who elect to have their bodies surgically altered are victims of false consciousness whose bodies are disciplined by the hegemonic male gaze. The second asserts that women who undergo elective cosmetic surgery exercise free (...) choice in controlling their bodies and lives. By examining sites wherein power is exercised by and over women, the authors argue for a synthesis of these two perspectives. They find that the women achieved greater power and control over their bodies and lives when they embodied hegemonic ideals of feminine beauty. Cosmetic surgery can be empowering for individual women while reinforcing the hegemonic ideals that oppress women as a group. (shrink)

We note the development of the widely employed but loosely defined construct of critical thinking from its earliest instantiations as a measure of individual ability to its current status, marked by efforts to better connect the construct to the socially-situated thinking demands of real life. Inquiry and argument are identified as key dimensions in a process-based account of critical thinking. Argument is identified as a social practice, rather than a strictly individual competency. Yet, new empirical evidence is presented documenting a (...) role for individual reasoning competencies in supporting the effectiveness of argumentive discourse. A successful curriculum is described for employing extended engagement in dialogic argumentation as a pathway to development of individual argumentive skill. (shrink)

Is there reason to be concerned about what has been seen as an increasing trend for discourse on complex issues to be confined to an “echo chamber” of like-minded individuals? To investigat...

Tri-parent baby technology is an assisted reproductive treatment which aims to minimize or eliminate maternal inheritance of mutated mitochondrial DNA. The technology became popular following the move by the United Kingdom in granting license to a group of researchers from the Newcastle Fertility Centre, Newcastle University to conduct research on the symptoms of defective mtDNA. This technology differs from other assisted reproductive technology because it involves the use of gamete components retrieved from three different individuals. Indirectly, it affects the preservation (...) of lineage which is important from an Islamic point of view. This paper aims to analyze and discuss the implications of the tri-parent technology on preservation of lineage from the perspective of Maqasid al-Shari’ah based the Islamic bioethics. The analysis shows that there are a few violations of the preservation of lineage, hence the tri-parent baby technology should not be permitted. (shrink)

We argue in favour of the general proposition that the nature of reasoning is best understood within a context of its origins and development. A major dimension of what develops in the years from childhood to adulthood, we propose, is increasing meta-level monitoring and management of cognition. Two domains are examined in presenting support for these claims—multivariable causal reasoning and argumentive reasoning.

How do the flexibilized scenes of cruel optimism crystallize and resonate with the situational displays of crises as a governmental oversight? Centering around this question, the paper aims to offer a critical fulcrum for problematic attachments toward future-mediated fantasies in the aftermath of the Kahramanmaras earthquakes. It starts with evaluating how the pastoral mode was applied as a cruel diagram of positivity by the Turkish government through the omnipresent prowess of the media, which presents an ‘ordinaryizing’ affect in regularizing the (...) fatalistic discourses and relief efforts. It then continues to analyze the retributive discourses by the politicians and officials that triggered the oscillatory porosity among varied (de)subjectivities, toggling between sovereign misrecognitions and exclusions, as well as spiritually vivifying the optimistic barriers of cruelty. Lastly, it discusses in what ways the hopeful projections reconciled with the preemption by the dominant scientific narratives paradoxically prolong the preexistence of uncertainty and trust. (shrink)

Şâfiî müctehidlerin muteber şahsiyetlerinden biri olan Râfiî el-Kazvînî, ilk olarak babası Muhammed b. Abdilkerîm el-Kazvînî (ö. 580/1184) ve annesinin dayısı Ebü’l-Hayr Ahmed et-Tâlkânî’nin (ö. 589/1193) rahle-i tedrisinde bulunduktan sonra alanında uzman birçok kişiden tefsir, hadis ve fıkıh sahasına ilişkin seviyeli bir eğitim almıştır. Yaşadığı asrın ileri gelen ulemasından İslâmî ilimleri okuyarak fıkıh ilminde ihtisas sahibi olan Râfiî, Kazvîn’de ders halkaları oluşturarak tedris faaliyetinde bulunmuş; dönemin halifeleri tarafından Şam ve Mısır baş kadılık görevine atanan Ahmed b. Halîl el-Mühellebî (ö. 638/1240), Zekiyyüddin (...) el-Münzirî (656/1258) ve İbn Sükkerî (ö.713/1313) gibi önemli simalar yetiştirmiştir. Zekâsı, aklı ve özellikle haiz olduğu fıkhî meseleleri ayırt etme yetisiyle Râfiî, doktrin içerisinde yer alan dağınık görüşleri toplayarak ilgili görüşlerden hangisinin daha kuvvetli olabileceğine dair tespitlerde bulunup mezhebi tahrîr/tenkîh etmiş, bir bakıma mezhebin görüşlerini ilmî elekten geçirip ayıklamıştır. Mezhep içerisindeki görüşleri inceleyerek farklı tarikleri birleştirme ve dağınık bilgileri ayıklayıp mezhep birikimini veciz ifadelerle yansıtma faaliyetinden dolayı ulemanın dikkatini üzerine çeken Râfiî, mezhepte iki otoriteden biri anlamına gelen Şeyhân’dan biri olma -diğeri ise Nevevî (ö. 676/1277)- unvanına layık görülmüştür. Bu yüzden onun hayatına ve ilmî kişiliğine Şâfiî terâcim eserlerinde oldukça yer verilmiştir. Bu çalışmada, sonraki dönemlerde mezhep görüşünü temsilde belirleyici olan Râfiî’nin ilmî kişiliği yanında mezhebi tahrîr/tenkîh etmesindeki rolüne yer verilecektir. (shrink)

Why does discourse so often seem shallow, with people arguing past one another more than with one another? Might contributing causes be individual and logical rather than only dialogical? We consider here whether there exist errors in reasoning that could be particularly damaging in their effects on argumentive discourse. In particular, we examine implications for discourse of two such errors – explanation as a replacement for evidence and neglecting the likelihood of multiple causes contributing to an outcome. In Studies 1 (...) and 2, we show these errors to be prevalent in a cross section of adults, as well as samples of community college students and young adolescents, with minimal age-related improvement. They also occur, although less frequently, among a sample of highly educated adults, and in Study 3, we examine their role in the discourse of college-educated adults. We point finally to evidence that these individual reasoning errors are potentially addressable through education. (shrink)

Phillips & Silverstein argue that a range of cognitive disturbances in schizophrenia result from a deficit in cognitive coordination attributable to NMDA receptor dysfunction. We suggest that the viability of this hypothesis would be further supported by explicit implementation in a computational framework that can produce quantitative estimates of the behavior of both healthy individuals and individuals with schizophrenia.

This article investigates online representations and evaluations of EU migrants, focusing on the notion of ‘benefit tourism’ and discursive strategies used in the (de)legitimization of new welfare restrictions in the UK. Through the examination of online newspapers and corresponding public comment threads, this article adopts theoretical and methodological premises from Critical Discourse Studies (CDS), drawing upon the Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA) to provide both a politically motivated as well as reflexive account. Although new participatory structures allow for resistance to emerge, the (...) openness, scalability and anonymity of the internet also allows for the spread of discrimination through the construction of EU migrants (in particular Bulgarians and Romanians) as the ‘Other’. (shrink)

Bu çalışmada, İslâm hukukunun ibadetler bölümü içerisinde konu edinen, fukaha tarafından yer yer müstakil başlık altında incelenen istihâre namazına ilişkin ileri sürülen bazı hükümler nitel araştırma ve istidlâl yöntemleri kullanılarak ele alınmıştır. İstihâre namazı hakkında varit olan birtakım rivâyetlerde Hz. Peygamber’in –kendisi kılmamasına rağmen- sahâbîlere söz konusu namazı tavsiye ettiği görülmüştür. Binaenaleyh istihâre namazının meşruiyeti, şer‘î deliller içerisinde sünnete dayanmaktadır. Meşrûiyeti hususunda herhangi bir hilaf söz konusu olmamasına rağmen istihâre namazına dair rivâyet edilen birtakım nasların senedinin tenkite tabi tutulduğu, ilgili (...) naslarda yer alan bazı kavramların da te’vile açık olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Bu ve benzeri hususlar, istihâre namazının hükmü yanında istihâre namazının rekât sayısı, istihâre duasının nerede okunacağı, hangi işler hakkında uygulanabilir olduğu, namaz kılınması mekruh sayılan vakitlerde kılınıp kılınamayacağı gibi bazı fıkhî meselelerin ortaya çıkmasına yol açmıştır. Bu durum ise, doktrin içerisinde kayda değer muhtelif görüş ve fikirlerin tezahür etmesine sebebiyet vermiştir. Dolayısıyla ele alınan bu çalışmada müctehidlerin istihâre namazı ve buna taalluk eden bazı fıkhî meselelere dair ileri sürdükleri görüşler, olabildiğince delilleriyle birlikte sunulmuş; meselelere ilişkin serdedilen rivâyetler cerh ve ta‘dîl açısından tahlil edilerek mezkûr konular bir bütünlük içerisinde incelenmeye çalışılmıştır. (shrink)

Ancient Arabic literature dealt with linguistic sciences such as sarf, nahiw, belagha and Islamic sciences such as fıqh, hadith and tafsîr. This is known to the elite and the common people. But what is hidden and forgotten is that Arabic literature also includes the foundations and rules of modern sciences such as sociology and economics. Among the ancient Arabic literature is the writing of Maqamat, which holds an important position among the masterpieces of Arabic literature. For this reason, it is (...) important to study the writing of Maqamat from the perspective of the various disciplines of Islamic sciences and modern sciences. This study deals with fıqh and economic issues within the framework of Al-Hariri’s famous book, Maqamat. The aim of the study is to reveal the fıqh and economic aspects of Makamat writing through Hariri's Makamat as an exemplary study. The approach followed by the study is to select three maqama from Al-Hariri’s book, which contained fifty complete maqama, and to search for what is in them of fıqh and economics. Accordingly, the study includes three main headings, and in these three headings, fıqh, farâid (inheritance law) and economic issues are discussed, respectively. Although the science of farâid (inheritance law) is a branch of fıqh, it is singled out for mention independently because it has its own rulings. The study examined the jurisprudential aspect of the Maqamat in the thirty-second maqama called “the Tayyibi Maqamat,” the aspect related to the science of farâid in the fifteenth maqama called “the Faradiya Maqamat,” and the economic aspect in the forty-ninth maqama called “the Sassanid Maqamat.” The method followed by Hariri in her book is to present the issues in the form of stories through two fictional characters, Haris bin Hammam and Abu Zayd, whom she chose as mirrors reflecting the two opposing identities of the society. Abu Zaid appears in different forms and in various clothes. He sometimes appears as a beggar who deceives and a thief who betrays, and at other times as a preacher who advises and a scholar who guides. Rather, he is an imaginary character that Hariri put in place. Wherever he went, he met Al-Harith bin Hammam and the strange and adventurous incident begins, or he appears as a person from whom Al-Harith narrated the incident and the story. Harith is the person who always warns his against bad things, orders his to do good, and sometimes condemns his if he does evil. The results obtained in the study are, first of all, the determination that the Makâmât writing deals with the subjects of the science of fiqh as in the thirty-second makama and the subjects of the science of farâid (inheritance law) as in the fifteenth makama and the subjects of economics as in the forty-ninth makama. It is seen that some of the principles put forward by Adam Smith years later were also present in the Maqamat literature centuries ago. The fact that fiqh views are according to the Shafi'i sect shows that the Shafi'i sect was widespread in the region at that time. Additionally, as can be understood from the forty-ninth makama, there is also a profession of begging in the society where Hariri lives. The study also reveals the society's interest in, submission to, and acceptance of moral principles at that time, and shows that the Arabic language reached its peak during this period. (shrink)

This article, using methods from corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis, reports the findings of a research project that aimed to explore the representations of Syrian asylum seekers in the Turkish press from March 2011, when the first Syrians arrived in Turkey, to December 2015, when the project ended. Using a corpus of 2321 texts collected from five Turkish daily newspapers, concordances of the words Syrian, refugee and asylum seeker were examined and grouped along patterns through which discourses on and (...) around Syrian asylum seekers were uncovered. We found differing discourses that framed asylum seekers as ‘our brothers’, ‘victims’, ‘needy people’ and/or ‘threat’, ‘criminals’ and so on. Newspapers maintained one or a combination of these discourses to construct their own reality about the refugee crisis in Turkey. The analysis also reveals that Turkish newspapers use pertinent terms interchangeably, leading to an ambiguity which reflects the political as well as daily usage of the terms. (shrink)

This paper is an evaluation and expansion of William Hasker’s transcendental argument against determinism. Hasker’s argument attempts to show that determinism is logically incompatible with rationality and justified belief. Hasker claims this argument to be conclusive given two independent qualifications: first that the argument only applies to a specific form of determinism, and second that the argument rests on a specific conception of rationality. My aim in this paper will be to modify and expand Hasker’s argument such that it (1) (...) applies to the more general deterministic thesis (as defined below), and (2), rests on a modified epistemic conception of rationally unaffirmable beliefs. I will attempt to do (2) by modeling Hasker’s argument after one of Alvin Plantinga’s epistemological arguments against naturalism, and hope to show that such an argumentative model is superior for the conclusion Hasker wishes to bring out. I will begin by explicating Hasker’s argument, and then I will move to the modification and expansion of the argument. (shrink)