The proposition that the existence of God is demonstrable by rational argument is doubted by nearly all philosophical opinion today and is thought by most Christian theologians to be incompatible with Christian faith. This book argues that, on the contrary, there are reasons of faith why in principle the existence of God should be thought rationally demonstrable and that it is worthwhile revisiting the theology of Thomas Aquinas to see why this is so. The book further suggests that philosophical objections (...) to proofs of God's existence rely upon an attenuated and impoverished conception of reason which theologians of all monotheistic traditions might wish to reject. Denys Turner proposes that on a broader and deeper conception of it, human rationality is open to the 'sacramental shape' of creation as such and in its exercise of rational proof of God it in some way participates in that sacramentality of all things. (shrink)

Human suicide presents a fundamental problem for the scientific analysis of behavior. This problem has been neither appreciated nor confronted by research and theory. Almost all other behavior exhibited by humans and nonhumans can be viewed as supporting the behaving organism's biological fitness and advancing the welfare of its genes. Yet suicide acts against these ends, and does so more directly and unequivocally than any other form of maladaptive behavior. Four heuristic models are presented here to account for suicide in (...) an evolutionary and sociobiological framework. The first model attributes suicide to the extraordinary development of learning and cultural evolution in the human species. Learning may make human behavior so independent of biological constraints that it can occasionally assume a form entirely contrary to the principles of biological evolution. The second model attributes suicide to a breakdown of adaptive mechanisms in extremely stressful novel environments. The third model involves kin and group selection, arguing that in limited circumstances suicide may occur because of beneficial effects it has on other, surviving individuals who share the suicidal individual's genes. The last model suggests that suicide should be tolerated by evolution when it has no effect on the gene pool. This model holds particular promise in accounting for aspects of suicide not attributable to culture. The evidence indicates that suicide is most common in individuals who are unlikely to reproduce and unable to engage in productive activity; such individuals are least capable of promoting their genes. A complete explanation of suicide may derive only from an analysis of its biological significance. (shrink)

A closely argued book about what the negative tradition in Western theology involves.

Excerpt from Descartes L'homme a souvent exalté avec orgueil la puissance de sa raison; mais plus souvent encore il l'accuse, la renie, et se met à. Douter d'elle. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, (...) an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. (shrink)

In the animal literature, the concept of dominance usually links status in intermale encounters with differential reproductive success. Mazur & Booth effectively review the human literature correlating testosterone with intermale competition, but more profound questions relating this to male–female dynamics have yet to be addressed in research with humans.

Progress in psychiatry depends on accurate definitions of disorders. As long as there are no known biologic markers available that are highly specific for a particular psychiatric disorder, clinical practice as well as scientific research is forced to appeal to clinical symptoms. Currently, the nosology of obsessive-compulsive disorder is being reconsidered in view of the publication of DSM-V. Since our diagnostic entities are often simplifications of the complicated clinical profile of patients, definitions of psychiatric disorders are imprecise and always indeterminate. (...) This urges researchers and clinicians to constantly think and rethink well-established definitions that in psychiatry are at risk of being fossilised. In this paper, we offer an alternative view to the current definition of obsessive-compulsive disorder from a phenomenological perspective.TranslationThis article is translated from Dutch, originally published in [Handbook Obsessive-compulsive disorders, Damiaan Denys, Femke de Geus (Eds.), (2007). De Tijdstroom uitgeverij BV, Utrecht. ISBN13: 9789058980878.]. (shrink)

Denys Turner is a philosopher who holds a chair in Cambridge's Faculty of Divinity. In this erudite and entertaining lecture he explores the conditions for the belief that God does not exist. According to Turner, the first challenge lies in acknowledging the question 'Does God exist?' to be a valid one. Once the question is established, various things follow, each one making it harder to maintain 'atheism' as a credible or interesting position. Turner boxes atheists into a philosophical corner, (...) showing how the belief that something has come of nothing is itself an acknowledgement of God's existence. Enlisting the help of thinkers as diverse as Aquinas, Kant, Wittgenstein, Nicholas Lash and John Milbank, Turner's witty and provocative piece will be of interest to anyone engaged in religious enquiry who has wondered about the nature and status of atheism as a defendable intellectual position in our age. (shrink)

Satisfaits que la connaissance soit un aller vers l'objet, les hommes se détournent au moment d'en déduire le retour. Croyant connaître, ils ne font que désirer leur propre échec. D'où vient qu'ils s'arrogent ainsi la mesure de l'abstrait selon des conditions finies? Comment cesser d'entendre "nature" (et, avec lui, tout son cortège : "être", "matière", "substance", "objet"...) dans "physique"? Le stratagème de la raison s'accompagne ipso facto d'une extase, d'une recherche de conditions qui, pour la raison, se situent précisément hors (...) d'elle. Tenir toutes les mesures dans l'effacement même du principe : ce n'est pas là simple jeu abstrait, mais discipline qui voue à l'inhumain. Reconduire les proportions vers le foyer d'une possibilité qui tranche : ce n'est pas là dessaisissement par la pensée de sa tâche propre, mais reprise terrible de ce qui, en elle, est davantage qu'elle. Qu'avons-nous à craindre? Qu'est-ce qui nous retient? Si les hommes ne peuvent vivre sans "les choses", le physicien doit du moins indiquer ce en quoi les choses s'évanouissent. Si la science est une tekhnè, la physique a, par et en elle-même, renoncé d'emblée à toute quête de salut. Non par désespoir, mais parce que la lucidité seule est joie. Le physicien est généreux car il reconnaît en son interrogation quelque chose de plus précieux que lui-même : voilà qui devrait inexorablement l'éloigner des hommes. Personne ne sera sauvé. S'il faut la vérité, elle se fera au prix de nous. Alexandre Lissner. (shrink)

In the paper is analyzing the process of the institutionalization of Islamic Studies in Ukraine on the period of independence (1991–2013). The centers of Islamic Studies, its histories, particularities of the activity and publications are studied. The author argues about the existence of three centers of Islamic Studies in Ukraine: 1) as the substructure of the Institutes of Academy of Sciences of Ukraine; 2) as the substructure inside the universities; 3) inside the non-government organizations. Three main spheres of the activity (...) of Islamic Studies centers are specified: research, organizational and educational. The main problems, which appear in the process of institutionalization of Islamic Studies in Ukraine are formulated. (shrink)

Aims and hypothesesIn an environment of absolute silence, researchers have found many of their participants to perceive phantom sounds. With this between-subject experiment, we aimed to elaborate on these research findings, and specifically investigated whether–in line with the fear-avoidance model of tinnitus perception and reactivity–fear or level of perceived threat influences the incidence and perceptual qualities of phantom sound percepts in an anechoic room. We investigated the potential role of individual differences in anxiety, negative affect, noise sensitivity and subclinical hearing (...) loss. We hypothesized that participants who experience a higher level of threat would direct their attention more to the auditory system, leading to the perception of tinnitus-like sounds, which would otherwise be subaudible, and that under conditions of increased threat, narrowing of attention would lead to perceptual distortions.MethodsIn total, N = 78 normal-hearing volunteers participated in this study. In general, the study sample consisted of young, mostly female, university students. Their hearing was evaluated using gold-standard pure tone audiometry and a speech-in-noise self-test, which is a sensitive screening test to identify subclinical hearing loss. Prior to a four-minute stay in an anechoic room, we randomized participants block design-wise in a threat and no-threat condition. Participants in the threat condition were deceived about their hearing and were led to believe that staying in the room would potentially harm their hearing temporarily. Participants were asked whether they perceived sounds during their stay in the room and rated the perceptual qualities of sound percepts. They were also asked to fill-out standardized questionnaires measuring anxiety, affect and noise sensitivity. The internal consistency of the questionnaires used was verified in our study sample and ranged between α = 0.61 and α = 0.90.ResultsIn line with incidence rates reported in the literature, 74% of our participants reported having heard tinnitus-like sounds in the anechoic room. Speech-in-noise identification ability was comparable for both groups of participants. The experimental manipulation of threat was proven to be effective, as indicated by significantly higher scores on a Threat Manipulation Checklist among participants in the threat condition as compared to those in the no-threat condition. Nevertheless, participants in the threat condition were as likely to report tinnitus percepts as participants in the no-threat condition, and tinnitus percepts were not rated as being louder or more unpleasant as a function of level of threat. For participants who did experience tinnitus percepts, a higher level of threat was associated with a higher degree of experienced unpleasantness. These associations were absent in those who did not experience tinnitus. Higher negative affect was only slightly associated with higher ratings of tinnitus unpleasantness.ConclusionWhereas our threat manipulation was successful in elevating the level of fear, it did not contribute to a higher percentage of participants perceiving tinnitus-like sounds in the threat condition. However, higher levels of perceived threat were related to a higher degree of perceived tinnitus unpleasantness. The findings of our study are drawn from a rather homogenous participant pool in terms of age, gender, and educational background, challenging conclusions that are applicable for the general population. Participants generally obtained normophoric scores on independent variables of interest: they were low anxious, low noise-sensitive, and there was little evidence for the presence of subclinical hearing loss. Possibly, there was insufficient variation in scores to find effects. (shrink)

David Rapoport’s Wave theory of terrorism is one of the most oftencited theories in the literature on terrorist violence. Rapoport is praised for having provided researchers with a universal instrument which allows them to explain the origin and transformation of various historical types of terrorism by applying to them the concept of global waves of terrorist violence driven by universal political impulses. This article, testing the Wave theory against the recent phenomenon of homegrown jihadism in Europe, uncovers this theory’s fundamental (...) weaknesses and questions its real academic and practical value. (shrink)

This article offers an interpretation of Georg Simmel’s philosophy of culture as a theory that can be applied to a critical view of the cultural and political economy situation of our time. This interpretation allows us to somewhat re-actualize the legacy of the German philosopher in the context of contemporary critical thought. The interpretation was created on the basis of the analysis of two Simmel’s key concepts, namely: “tragedy of culture” and “conflict of culture”, as well as their relationship. In (...) addition, the basis for such reading was Simmel’s understanding of the subject, which denies the absolute sovereignty and asserts his appearance only under the influence of cultural objects. This is complemented by the interpretation of the “tragedy of culture” as a theory that debunks the “sovereign subject” as discussed by Dina and Michael Weinstein in Postmodern Simmel. Interpretation of Simmel’s theory of culture as critical towards its object includes an analysis of various phenomena inherent in modern culture from the standpoint of this theory. First, such a phenomenon is the capitalist system, which, due to its self-regulation, is an absolutely alienated object and a stimulator of the quantitative distribution of cultural objects. Secondly, the imperious relationship of cultural objects and the level of influence of some objects on the development and distribution of others allows us to look at how certain cultural phenomena transform culture as a whole. The third point is the relativization of reality and values and the role of the phenomenon of money in this process. Finally, it is the transformation of the role of subjects in the process of creating cultural objects. This transformation arises as the effect of placing the “tragedy” and “conflict” of culture in the same plane of contemporaneity, as a result of which the impulse to reproduce an objective culture can no longer be provided by a subjective impulse; but there is no decline in the rate of growth of an objective culture, and therefore, the key objects of culture are taken the function of this impulse.Manuscript received 10.08.2020. (shrink)

The concept of digital culture defines a set of values, practices, and expectations regarding the format of human interaction in today’s online society. Predictions of digital culture describe the specifics of the online environment and the general context of social life. The range of interpretations of digital culture varies between two poles: from the recognition of digital technologies as a way of presenting libraries, museums, historical monuments, etc., to the concepts of digital culture as a new socio-anthropological reality, the content (...) of which is not limited to ICT. Culture as a phenomenon means the semantic unity of human activity, the desire to format social life following ideas and values, the movement from existing to obligatory, from actual to potential, and digital culture is an adequate response to the demands and challenges. People worldwide change their placement of everyday activity, and we could admit such huge transformation in the Chinese People’s Republic exactly obvious. (shrink)

This article takes up the processual account of drive and its derivations in relation to desire and emotion with an aim to explore the continuity of feeling from internal drive to value in the world. A mental state or act of cognition begins with an impulse and the category of instinctual drive. Drive partitions to desire, which is shaped by value. The combined concept/feeling can remain internal as emotion or distribute into action in vocalization or display. The transition in the (...) mental state from drive through desire is constrained by intrinsic value, which accompanies the object outward as extrinsic value. The partly intrapersonal nature of action prevents feeling from externalizing. Feeling drives concepts to completion. Concepts propelled by feeling undergo specification to images and/or objects. The feeling in the action gives intensity to emotion; the concept in the perception gives the quality of emotion. Feeling empowers concepts to finality, as emotions, ideas, or act/objects. In the animal mind, feeling empowers drive categories. In the human mind, feeling distributes as emotion into a diversity of ideas. Feeling unfelt in lower organisms is felt in a human mind according to the degree of individuation. (shrink)

Negative theology or apophasis - the idea that God is best identified in terms of 'absence', 'otherness', 'difference' - has been influential in modern Christian thought, resonating as it does with secular notions of negation developed in continental philosophy. Apophasis also has a strong intellectual history dating back to the early Church Fathers. Silence and the Word both studies the history of apophasis and examines its relationship with contemporary secular philosophy. Leading Christian thinkers explore in their own way the extent (...) to which the concept of the apophatic illumines some of the deepest doctrinal structures of Christian faith, and of Christian self-understanding both in terms of its historical and contemporary situatedness, showing how a dimension of negativity has characterised not only traditional mysticism but most forms of Christian thought over the years. (shrink)

What should and what should not to be counted as a human right? What does it mean to identify a right as a human right? And what are the most effective and legitimate means of promoting human rights? This book addresses these questions and the complex relationship between the answers to them.

Two papyri ascribe this poem to Sappho ; Athenaeus attributes v. 10 to her; Philostratos attributes v. 30 to her. In three of these places the poem is assigned to her Second Book. Perhaps it is true that hardly any other poem of Sappho is so often ascribed to her by antiquity. This admittedly proves no more than that the poem was certainly handed down in the Sappho-book in antiquity: it does not necessarily prove its authenticity. But at least it (...) settles the burden of proof on those who would deny that Sappho wrote it. Now it has been thought that certain arguments can be employed to justify the overthrow of ancient testimonies. If, however, these arguments should proveto be fallacious or insufficient, the poem will automatically be reascribed to Sappho. (shrink)

In British constitutional law, the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty maintains that Parliament has unlimited legislative authority. Critics have recently challenged this doctrine, on historical and philosophical grounds. This book describes its historical origins and development.

For many years, biology was largely descriptive (natural history), but with its emergence as a scientific discipline in its own right, a reductionist approach began, which has failed to be matched by adequate understanding of function of cells, organisms and species as whole entities. Every effort was made to explain biological phenomena in physico-chemical terms.It is argued that there is and always has been a clear distinction between life sciences and physical sciences, explicit in the use of the word biology. (...) If this distinction is real, it implies that biological phenomena can never be entirely satisfactorily explained in terms of extant physicochemical laws. One notable manifestation of this is that living organisms appear to -- actually do -- behave in purposeful ways, and the inanimate universe does not. While this fundamental difference continues to be suppressed, the purposiveness (or teleology) which pervades biology remains anathema to almost all scientists (including most biologists) even to the present day. We argue here that it can, however, become a perfectly tenable position when the Theory of Natural Selection is accepted as the main foundation, the essential tenet, of biology that distinguishes it from the realm of physical sciences. In accepting this position, it remains quite legitimate to expect that in many but not all circumstances, extant physical laws (and presumably others still to be discovered) are in no way breached by biological systems, which cannot be otherwise since all organisms are composed of physical material. (shrink)

Zusammenfassung Die Corona-Pandemie führt seit 2020 zu weitreichenden gesellschaftlichen Veränderungen, die u. a. in einer Abnahme der Sportvereinsmitglieder insgesamt sowie in einem verstärkten Einsamkeitsgefühl bestehen. Konträr zu diesen allgemeinen Entwicklungen ist in der Alterskohorte der über 60-Jährigen eine konstante Anzahl an Vereinsmitgliedern zu beobachten. Mit Hilfe von narrativen Interviews in einer Seniorengesundheitssportgruppe in Jena (n=5, Durchschnittsalter 75) und der qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse nach Mayring galt es herauszufinden, welche Faktoren eine Teilnahme an Sportkursen während der Corona-Pandemie positiv beeinflussen. In dieser Zeit von (...) Oktober bis November 2021 mit entsprechenden pandemieeindämmenden Maßnahmen wie Kontaktbeschränkungen stellte das Stattfinden dieses Senioren-Gesundheitssportprogramms in Präsenz bereits eine Besonderheit dar. Die Interviewpartner wurden deshalb explizit nach den Faktoren für eine Teilnahme an diesem Kurs befragt. Neben bereits bekannten gesundheitlichen, partizipativen und traditionalen Aspekten sowie verfügbaren zeitlichen Ressourcen kam mit dem fehlenden Lebenssinn ein neuer Aspekt hinzu. Insgesamt wird durch die Teilnahme an diesem Senioren-Gesundheitssportprogramm eine Möglichkeit geschaffen, um die individuelle Lebensqualität positiv zu beeinflussen. Mit dem Abebben des Pandemiegeschehens ergibt sich zukünftig die Frage, inwieweit sich diese Einfluss faktoren verschieben könnten, wenn neben sportlichen ebenfalls wieder private gesellschaftliche Zusammenkünfte möglich sind. (shrink)