Respecting patients’ rights is a fundamental aspect of providing quality healthcare. The present investigation attempts to explore the awareness among patients about their rights in a coastal township in India. A questionnaire-based cross-sectional study was carried out among 215 patients admitted to the wards of a tertiary care teaching hospital in Mangalore. Awareness among patients regarding their rights varied for various issues and ranged between 48.4 and 87.4 %. Awareness about patients’ rights was independent of gender, socio-economic and educational status. (...) Doctors were found to be the most common source of information for patient’s about their rights in the study. Doctors must conform to the relevant legislations and involve patients in all aspects of healthcare. There is a need to increase awareness among patients about their rights to ensure informed decisions and better health care services. (shrink)

The irreducibility thesis of phenomenal consciousness can only succeed against the sceptical attack and avoid solipsism iff it can coherently establish the transition from subjective certainty to the objectivity of knowledge. The sceptical attack on the relationship between the phenomenal qualitative character of experience about the subjects own mental fact and the awareness of the qualitative properties of the phenomenal object can be avoided through establishing the immediacy of experience. The phenomenal realist become successful in establishing the subjective certainty about (...) the knowledge of phenomenal consciousness, however, has been failed in establishing objective certainty of knowledge, which leads to several epistemological problems (i.e., scepticism about the independent existence of external world, knowledge about the external reality and the existence of other mind; popularly known as the harder problem of consciousness) in philosophy of mind. In this paper, my objective is to reveal the undesirable consequences of representationalism. Representationalism is not an ideal option for responding to the sceptical attack against the other minds and the reality of the external world. It always leaves an open question for us about the relation between the representation of the object of experience and consciousness. Representationalistic theories of experience violates the principles of phenomenality by rejecting the immediacy of experience and has been committing the pragmatic contradiction by reducing the phenomenal properties to representational properties. The categorization of knowledge about phenomenality as inferential knowledge by representationalist leave no room for foundational knowledge about phenomenality. (shrink)

Consumers are increasingly facing product evaluation and choice situations that include information about product sustainability, i.e., information about a product’s relative environmental and social impact. In many cases, consumers have to make decisions that involve a trade-off between product sustainability and other valued product attributes. Similarly, product and marketing managers need to make decisions that reflect how consumers will respond to different trade-off scenarios. In the current research, we study consumer responses across two different possible trade-off scenarios: one in which (...) consumers face a trade-off between product sustainability and hedonic value, and another in which they must trade-off between product sustainability and utilitarian value. Our results suggest that, overall, consumers are more likely to trade-off hedonic value for sustainability than to trade-off utilitarian value for sustainability. In Studies 1A and 1B, we presented participants with a product choice task and also measured their anticipatory emotions as they contemplated their options. The results suggest that given a trade-off, consumers are more likely to choose a sustainable product when they have to trade-off hedonic value than when they have to trade-off utilitarian value. Further, these studies provide some insight into the emotions underlying this effect. In Study 2, we use a different consumer response measure, relative purchase likelihood, and investigate the effect of trade-off type across categories that vary in the degree to which hedonic and utilitarian attributes are perceived to be important. Our results suggest that the effect of trade-off type still holds, yet is moderated by product type such that consumers’ greater willingness to trade-off hedonic value for sustainability is attenuated as the relative importance of hedonic attributes increases. In addition to building on our theoretical understanding of decision making given trade-offs with moral attributes, this research is also intended to support managers as they define and choose among various strategic, product development, and marketing promotion options. (shrink)

The objective of the current paper is to provide a critical analysis of Dretske's defense of the naturalistic version of the privileged accessibility thesis. Dretske construed that the justificatory condition of privileged accessibility neither relies on the appeal to perspectival ontology of phenomenal subjectivity nor on the functionalistic notion of accessibility. He has reformulated introspection (which justifies the non-inferentiality of the knowledge of one's own mental facts in an internalist view) as a displaced perception for the defense of naturalistic privileged (...) accessibility. Both internalist and externalist have been approved the plausibility of first-person authority argument through privileged accessibility; however, their disagreement lies on the justificatory condition of privileged accessibility. Internalist hold the view that the justificatory warrant for privileged accessibility is grounded on phenomenal subjectivity. In contrast to the internalist view, externalists uphold the view that the justificatory condition for privileged accessibility lies outside the domain of phenomenal subjectivity. As a proponent of naturalistic content externalism, Dretske defends the view that subject's privileged accessibility is not due to having access to the particular representational state (hence, they have the privilege of getting sensory representational information) and the awareness of mental fact rather the awareness of the whole representational mechanism. Having the knowledge of a particular representational state through privileged access is not the sufficient condition for the accuracy of knowledge about one’s own mental facts. The justificatory warrant lies external to the subject. Even though Dretske’s naturalistic representation is not plausible enough while dealing with the reduction of phenomenal qualities of experience, however, provides a new roadmap to compatibilists for the defense of privileged accessibility and has a major impact on transparency theorists. (shrink)

The epistemology which we went through up to 1970’s has hardly been gender-sensitive, and with the emergence of feminism, mainly with its Second Wave, a group of gender-sensitive practitioners of epistemology and feminist philosophy came out to declare that our so far cultivated epistemology (which is sometimes regarded as “pure” and “standard‘) has subtly been infected with viruses of patriarchal ideology and androcentrism. Taking this gender dimension in mind, there has developed a considerable amount of literature, which is referred to (...) as feminist epistemology. It is actually doing epistemology in order to assure cognitive justice to all, and thereby establish gendersensitive humanism, cleansing it from traditional androcentric biases and unjust patriarchal surveillance. This present article is a critical study of this feminist epistemology, where I shall be dwelling upon the epistemological roots of gender discrimination. Philosophy and Progress, Vol#69-70; No#1-2; Jan-Dec 2021 P 145-171. (shrink)

The most predominant kind of disease that is normal among ladies is breast cancer. It is one of the significant reasons among ladies, regardless of huge endeavors to stay away from it through screening developers. An automatic detection system for disease helps doctors to identify and provide accurate results, thereby minimizing the death rate. Computer-aided diagnosis has minimum intervention of humans and produces more accurate results than humans. It will be a difficult and long task that depends on the expertise (...) of pathologists. Deep learning methods proved to give better outcomes when correlated with ML and extricate the best highlights of the images. The main objective of this paper is to propose a deep learning technique in combination with a convolution neural network and long short-term memory with a random forest algorithm to diagnose breast cancer. Here, CNN is used for feature extraction, and LSTM is used for extracted feature detection. The experimental results show that the proposed system accomplishes 100% of accuracy, a sensitivity of 99%, recall of 99%, and an F1-score of 98% compared to other traditional models. As the system achieved correct results, it can help doctors to investigate breast cancer easily. (shrink)

This paper is intended to explore the Rorty’s notion of truth and its vicinity and divergences with Putnam’s notion of truth. Rorty and Putnam, both the philosophers have developed their notion of truth against the traditional representational notion of truth but their strength lies in its distinctive characterization. For Putnam, truth is the property of a statement which cannot be lost but the justification of it could be. I will also examine the importance of Putnam’s idealized justificatory conditions without which (...) he may succumb to the charge of relativism at the same time how does Putnam overcome the tension between metaphysical and relativistic stances of truth. For Rorty, truth is not representational rather it is social, which means the justification for a true belief is not external but internal to the community of believers. I would further examine how Rorty tries to dispel the charge of relativism which is hard to overcome. Finally, I shall try to defend the concept of truth which is free from metaphysical baggage and relativistic threats; and in this enterprise Rorty walks half the way and Putnam completes the journey. (shrink)

India has one of the most heterogeneous societies in the world. It is a multi-cultural, multi-linguistic, multi-ethnic and multi-religious country. Constitutionally, it is also a sovereign socialist secular democratic republic. But in recent times, Hindu nationalism or Hindutva has been dominant in shaping Indian politics. Hindutva, a shorthand of Hindu nationalism, is actually a politico-ideological device that appears to be disassociated from the spiritual roots of Hinduism and, to many, it is very much alike to the rise of political Islam. (...) Although Hinduism is native to the Indian subcontinent, Hindutva as a political ideology is comparatively a recent phenomenon which creates a growing concern to the land since 1920s. India experienced the rise of Hindutva as a concrete political ideology in 1923 introduced by V. D. Savarkar as it starts to achieve its popularity since 1980s. Obviously it has many reasons. Hindutva is not a monolithic concept as it is generally perceived. Rather, its text, subtext and context had changed throughout the 20th century depending on the period and leadership. This article aims to analyze the trend of the development of Hindu Nationalism or Hindutva in India since its start in the 20th century through a historical lens. Philosophy and Progress, Vol#69-70; No#1-2; Jan-Dec 2021 P 211-241. (shrink)

Foreword -- Acknowledgements -- Preface -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The concept of Dharma in Purvamīmāmsā -- 3. Dharma as in Buddhism and Jainism -- 4. Dharma as in Mahabharata -- 5. Dharma : the essential properties of man -- 6. Some problems along with critical remarks -- Bibliography -- Index.

Since 2022, Visual Generative AI (vGenAI) tools have experienced rapid adoption and garnered widespread acclaim for their ability to produce high-quality images with convincing photorealistic representations. These technologies mirror society’s prevailing visual politics in a mediated form, and actively contribute to the perpetuation of deeply ingrained assumptions, categories, values, and aesthetic representations. In this paper, we critically analyze Stable Diffusion (SD), a widely used open-source vGenAI tool, through visual and intersectional analysis. Our analysis covers; (1) the aesthetics of the AI-generated (...) visual material, (2) the institutional contexts in which these images are situated and produced, and (3) the intersections between power systems such as racism, colonialism, and capitalism—which are both reflected and perpetuated through the visual aesthetics. Our visual analysis of 180 SD-generated images deliberately sought to produce representations along different lines of privilege and disadvantage—such as wealth/poverty or citizen/immigrant—drawing from feminist science and technology studies, visual media studies, and intersectional critical theory. We demonstrate how imagery produced through SD perpetuates pre-existing power systems such as sexism, racism, heteronormativity, and ableism, and assumes a default individual as white, able-bodied, and masculine-presenting. Furthermore, we problematize the hegemonic cultural values in the imagery that can be traced to the institutional context of these tools, particularly in the tendency towards Euro- and North America-centric cultural representations. Finally, we find that the power systems around SD result in the continual reproduction of harmful and violent imagery through technology, challenging the oft-underlying notion that vGenAI is culturally and aesthetically neutral. Based on the harms identified through our qualitative, interpretative analysis, we bring forth a reparative and social justice-oriented approach to vGenAI—including the need for acknowledging and rendering visible the cultural-aesthetic politics of this technology and engaging in reparative approaches that aim to symbolically and materially mend injustices enacted against social groups. (shrink)

The aim of this article was to discuss the modeling and control method of quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle. In the process of modeling, mechanism modeling and experimental testing are combined, especially the motor and propeller are modeled in detail. Through the understanding of the body structure and flight principle of the quadrotor UAV, the Newton–Euler method is used to analyze the dynamics of the quadrotor UAV, and the mathematical model of the UAV is established under the small angle rotation. Process (...) identifier is used to control it. First, the attitude angle of the model is controlled by PID, and based on this, the speed in each direction is controlled by PID. Then, the PID control of the four rotor aircraft with the center of gravity offset is simulated by MATLAB. The results show that the pitch angle and roll angle can be controlled by 5 degrees together without center of gravity deviation, and the PID can effectively control the control quantity and achieve the desired effect in a short time. Classical BP algorithm, classical GA-BP algorithm, and improved GA-BP algorithm were trained, respectively, with a total of 150 sets of training data, training function uses Levenberg-Marquardt, and performance function uses mean squared error. In the background of the same noise, the improved GA-BP algorithm has the highest detection rate, classical GA-BP algorithm is the second, and classical BP algorithm is the worst. The simulation results show that the PID control law can effectively control the attitude angle and speed of the rotor UAV in the case of center of gravity deviation. (shrink)

Familial determination, replete with its frequent usurping of patient autonomy, propagation of collusion, and circumnavigation of direct patient involvement in their own care deliberations, continues to impact clinical practice in many Asian nations. Suggestions that underpinning this practice, in Confucian-inspired societies, is the adherence of the populace to the familial centric ideas of personhood espoused by Confucian ethics, provide a novel means of understanding and improving patient-centred care at the end of life. Clinical experience in Confucian-inspired Singapore, however, suggests that (...) personhood is conceived in broader terms. This diverging view inspired a study of local conceptions of personhood and scrutiny of the influence of the family upon it. From the data gathered, a culturally appropriate, clinically relevant and ethically sensitive concept of personhood was proposed: the Ring Theory of Personhood that better captures the nuances of local conceptions of personhood. The Ring Theory highlights the fact that, far from being solely dependent upon familial centric ideals, local conceptions of personhood are dynamic, context dependent, evolving ideas delineated by four dimensions. Using the Ring Theory, the nature of familial influences upon the four dimensions of personhood – the Innate, Individual, Relational and Societal – are examined to reveal that, contrary to perceived knowledge, conceptions of personhood within Confucian societies are not the prime reason for the continued presence of this decision-making model but remain present within local thinking and practices as a sociocultural residue and primarily because of inertia in updating ideas. (shrink)

The development of cultural heritage tourism (CHT) frequently encounters obstacles pertaining to community support, as the attitudes of the local populace typically dictate the outcome of tourism endeavors. The community's influence on these perceptions has been undervalued in traditional approaches, which has resulted in low levels of engagement and support for cultural preservation. This study aims to bridge this gap by investigating how different degrees of community involvement impact local perceptions of the advantages of tourism, the preservation of culture, and (...) general satisfaction with the results. Data was gathered from 300 participants who were actively involved in many heritages sites' tourism planning. The connections between perceptions of the advantages of tourism and community involvement (CI) were evaluatedby utilizing Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results demonstrated that the perceptions of economic benefits (PEB), perceptions of cultural preservation (PCP), and community satisfaction (CS) are all positively impacted by greater CI. The aforementioned results underscore the significance of adopting participatory methodologies, implying that cultivating community engagement is vital for the sustainable growth of CHT. (shrink)

The success of an organization depends on its quality management (QM) and organizational culture (OC). While QM seeks to improve the caliber of products and services, OC consider to share beliefs and behaviors that impact working relationships. Together, they deliver excellent performance and a competitive advantage. The goal of the study is to evaluate how various OC factors affect QM methods and their effectiveness. The comprehensive evaluation provided by the study is based on data from 320 experts, validated questionnaires and (...) advanced statistical techniques like correlation analysis, ANOVA and multiple regression. The study shows a significant relationship between certain OC variables and QM outcomes, highlighting the advantages of process adherence, communication process and encouraging leadership style on the effectiveness of QM and customer satisfaction. OC must be in line with QM objectives to improve customer experiences and organizational success. The research highlights the significance of integrating OC elements into QM strategies to foster an environment that drives higher output and improved customer satisfaction. (shrink)

Speech perception has been a very productive and important area in psycholinguistics. In this review easy, I discuss Cutler's new book on native language listening. Cutler argues for a theory of speech perception, where all speech perception is accomplished by competence in native speech. I review this book and attempt to situate its main contributions in the broader context of cognitive science.

Misinformation surrounding the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has contributed to the formation of misbeliefs among the public. The purpose of this paper is to investigate public sentiment and misbeliefs about the SDGs on the YouTube platform.,The authors extracted 8,016 comments from YouTube videos associated with SDGs. The authors used a pre-trained Python library NRC lexicon for sentiment and emotion analysis, and to extract latent topics, the authors used BERTopic for topic modeling.,The authors found eight emotions, with negativity outweighing positivity, in (...) the comment section. In addition, the authors identified the top 20 topics discussing various SDGs and SDG-related misbeliefs.,The authors reported topics related to public misbeliefs about SDGs and associated keywords. These keywords can be used to formulate social media content moderation strategies to screen out content that creates these misbeliefs. The result of hierarchical clustering can be used to devise and optimize response strategies by governments and policymakers to counter public misbeliefs.,This study represents an initial endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of the public’s misbeliefs regarding SDGs. The authors identified novel misbeliefs about SDGs that previous literature has not studied. Furthermore, the authors introduce an algorithm BERTopic for topic modeling that leverages transformer architecture for context-aware topic modeling. (shrink)

Objective Moral distress is a complex phenomenon experienced by healthcare professionals. This study examined the relationships between key dimensions of Organizational Culture in Healthcare (OCHC)—perceived psychological safety, ethical climate, patient safety—and healthcare professionals’ perception of moral distress.Design Cross-sectional surveySetting Pediatric and adult critical care medicine, and adult hospital medicine healthcare professionals in the United States.Participants Physicians (n = 260), nurses (n = 256), and advanced practice providers (n = 110) participated in the study.Main outcome measures Three dimensions of OCHC were (...) measured using validated questionnaires: Olson’s Hospital Ethical Climate Survey, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s Patient Safety Culture Survey, and Edmondson’s Team Psychological Safety Survey. The perception of moral distress was measured using the Moral Distress Amidst a Pandemic Survey. The hypothesized relationships between various dimensions were tested with structural equation modeling (SEM).Results Adequate model fit was achieved in the SEM: a root-mean-square error of approximation =0.072 (90% CI 0.069 to 0.075), standardized root mean square residual = 0.056, and comparative fit index =0.926. Perceived psychological safety (β= −0.357, p <.001) and patient safety culture (β = −0.428, p<.001) were negatively related to moral distress experience. There was no significant association between ethical climate and moral distress (β = 0.106, p = 0.319). Ethical Climate, however, was highly correlated with Patient Safety Culture (factor correlation= 0.82).Conclusions We used structural equation model to test a theoretical model of multi-dimensional organizational culture and healthcare climate (OCHC) and moral distress.Significant associations were found, supporting mitigating strategies to optimize psychological safety and patient safety culture to address moral distress among healthcare professionals. Future initiatives and studies should account for key dimensions of OCHC with multi-pronged targets to preserve the moral well-being of individuals, teams, and organizations. (shrink)

Background: Visual arts education has been suggested to influence cognitive and behavioral outcomes, yet its specific effects on critical thinking and behavior regulation remain underexplored. The effect of visual arts education on these domains forms the topic of the present study, which employs a mixed approach research design. Aim: To assess the impact of visual arts education on the improvement of critical thinking and self-regulation in students. Methodology: A quasi-experimental approach was employed with 80 individuals, with 40 in the experimental (...) group Report Phrase receiving education in visual arts and 40 in the control group receiving non-visual arts education. CTST and BRI assessment tools were used to acquire quantitative data about the participants, utilizing the independent and paired sample T-tests. Data collected from participants include interviews, focus group discussions, self-administered, and thematic analysis. A repeated measures ANOVA was used to analyse the data. Result: Statistical findings depicted improvements in the quantitative aspect; critical thinking skills improved from 70.0 to 75.3 with p<0.001 and behavior regulation improved from 65.0 to 69.2 with p<0.001 in the experimental-group in contrast to the control-group. The thematic analysis found striking increases in attention, impulse control, task completion, creativity, collaboration, affect expression, and self-esteem of experimental-group participants. Based on the findings of the Repeated Measures ANOVA, significant enhancements were observed in both domains for critical thinking and behavior regulation with effect size estimates of 0.40 and 0.30, respectively. Conclusion: The development of critical thinking and behavior control in students is greatly impacted by art instruction. Quantitative and qualitative data both support the utility of using visual arts interventions for cognitive and behavioral development and inform practice in art education. (shrink)

Our understanding of the human and the social, as well as our realization of these, are in need of fundamental transformations, as our present day use of these are deeply anthropocentric, Eurocentric and dualistic. Human development discourse looks at the human in an adjectival way, so does the social quality approach to the category of the social: neither reflects the profound rethinking both the categories have gone through even in the Western theoretical imagination. In this context, the present essay explores (...) the ways these two categories are being rethought in Western theoretical imagination and discusses the non-anthropocentric and post-anthropocentric conceptualization and realization of the human, which resonates with non-socio-centric and post-social conceptions of society. The essay also opens these two categories to cross-cultural and planetary conversations and on the way rethinks subjectivity, sovereignty, temporality and spatiality. It pleads for a foundational rethinking of human security and social quality and for creative intertwining between the two with visions and practices of practical spirituality. (shrink)

Music education increasingly integrates digital technology to enhance teaching effectiveness and student engagement. This study investigates the impact of technology proficiency on music instruction by analyzing data from 80 music teachers and their students, aged 10-18 years, gathered through a detailed questionnaire. SPSS software was utilized for statistical analysis, including factor analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). SEM analysis revealed that Community Influence (CI) and Achievement Prediction (AP) significantly impact Psychological Forecasting (PF), while Technical Expertise (TE) (...) and Educational Technology Proficiency (ETP) have minimal direct effects. Specifically, CI and AP positively influence PF, whereas TE and ETP do not significantly impact PF. The results highlight that social factors and performance expectations are more influential in enhancing teaching outcomes than technological skills alone. (shrink)

The marketing culture is essential for improving performance in the highly competitive restaurant industry. It investigates the effectiveness of marketing culture dimensions on the performance of restaurants in the competitive restaurant industry. The data was gathered from 298 respondents of managers and employees across 48 restaurants using a structured questionnaire. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to evaluate the connections between these constructs. The measurement model assessment was validated using indicators such as Average Variance Extracted (AVE), Composite (...) Reliability, and Cronbach’s Alpha. The structural model assessment investigation's strategy hypothesized connections were also tested using evaluations of five structural path frameworks. The findings demonstrate that all five dimensions of marketing culture positively and significantly impact restaurant performance. Sales strategy had the strongest influence, followed by innovation potential, quality of service, organizational structure, and leadership-staff collaboration. All hypothesized relationships were supported with significant path coefficients, T-values, and p-values. The study emphasizes the importance of a robust marketing culture in enhancing restaurant performance and suggests that restaurant managers should prioritize the development of effective sales strategies and foster innovation within their marketing culture. (shrink)

Text document classification and clustering is an important learning task which fits to both data mining and machine learning areas. The learning task throws several challenges when it is required to process high dimensional text documents. Word distribution in text documents plays a very key role in learning process. Research related to high dimensional text document classification and clustering is usually limited to application of traditional distance functions and most of the research contributions in the existing literature did not consider (...) the word distribution in documents. In this research, we propose a novel similarity function for feature pattern clustering and high dimensional text classification. The similarity function proposed is used to carry supervised learning based dimensionality reduction. The important feature of this work is that the word distribution before and after dimensionality reduction is the same. Experiment results prove the proposed approach achieves dimensionality reduction, retains the word distribution and obtained better classification accuracies compared to other measures. (shrink)

Day-to-day lives are affected globally by the epidemic coronavirus 2019. With an increasing number of positive cases, India has now become a highly affected country. Chronic diseases affect individuals with no time identification and impose a huge disease burden on society. In this article, an Efficient Recurrent Neural Network with Ensemble Classifier is built using VGG-16 and Alexnet with weighted model to predict disease and its level. The dataset is partitioned randomly into small subsets by utilizing mean-based splitting method. Various (...) models of classifier create a homogeneous ensemble by utilizing an accuracy-based weighted aging classifier ensemble, which is a weighted model’s modification. Two state of art methods such as Graph Sequence Recurrent Neural Network and Hybrid Rough-Block-Based Neural Network are used for comparison with respect to some parameters such as accuracy, precision, recall, f1-score, and relative absolute error. As a result, it is found that the proposed ERNN-EC method accomplishes accuracy of 95.2%, precision of 91%, recall of 85%, F1-score of 83.4%, and RAE of 41.6%. (shrink)

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (TLP) turns hundred years of its publication in the year 2021. The book has received several interpretations during this period of hundred years. However, in the last three decades, the interpretations of TLP have taken a very tenacious position with regard to the debates among scholars concerning whether there is any metaphysical significance in the text. The debates primarily offshoot in the rise of anti-metaphysical or often known as resolute reading that challenges the standard or metaphysical reading. The (...) present paper, however, goes beyond this debate between the resolute and standard reading of TLP. The paper aims at addressing various types of metaphysical reading(s) that has not been perhaps the centre of discussion because the resolute reading takes on only standard reading. Thus, the present paper attempts to show the variety of metaphysical interpretations of the text in some of the recent literatures. (shrink)

This article discusses the importance of human beings ‘material’ (matter) and ‘spiritual’ (spirit) advancement in Rammanohar Lohia’s concept of modernity and modern civilization. Lohia consistently defended materialism (reason) and spirituality as pivotal human values in his writing and speeches. This article engages with his ideas through a detailed reading of his works, focusing particularly on his essays: ‘Materiality and Spirituality’ and ‘Meaning of Modern Civilisation’. According to him, rational thinking emerges from materialism. He believed spiritual instinct keeps a check on (...) the malicious employment of rationality and science; similarly, rationality prevents the perversion of spirituality into superstition and dogmatism. This article articulates two aspects of interpreting modernity: first, it reframes the epistemological understanding of materialism and spirituality, challenging and clarifying prevailing misconceptions; second, it advocates a comprehensive reconstruction of Indian society, which we understand as praxis. His concept of modernity is an amalgamation of theory and praxis. Lohia unequivocally emphasizes that Indian society would reach the height of development by simultaneously engaging in the spiritual and material development of Indian civilization. (shrink)

This book deals with the question of understanding religion and its relationship with politics in the context of developing countries. It reviews specific theories, such as modernisation theory, marxism, liberalism, hermeneutics and critical approach to explain questions related to religion and religious traditions. The book focuses on the recent attempts to theorise religion by Jurgen Habermas. It argues modernisation and orthodox Marxian theory are inadequate in understanding the recent spurt of religious phenomenon in politics. It discusses Hans-Georg Gadamer’s view to (...) show a way forward regarding dialectical hermeneutics in facilitating a dialogue between different traditions and religions. The book is of interest to students, scholars, practitioners of development, and all those who concern themselves with the questions of religion, tradition, modernity and secular well-being in developing countries such as India and beyond. (shrink)

So far, most ethical consumerism research has been contained within Western countries, thus limiting our understanding of the concept in emerging markets. Given the call for extending empirical-based knowledge for a better understanding of peculiarities, dynamics and country-level variations (i.e. social, cultural) in the context of ethical consumerism in emerging markets, this research cross-examines the interactive nature of individual- and country-level predictors of ethical consumerism in emerging and developed markets, employing a multilevel approach. At the individual level, we posit that (...) ethical consumerism is motivated by social and cultural capital. In contrast, at the contextual level, we choose country-level affluence as an influential factor that might impact the relationship between socio-cultural capital and ethical consumerism. The study uses the International Social Survey Programme’s (ISSP) 2014 citizenship module data set (including 34 countries) for investigating individual-level predictors (of social and cultural capital). The GDP per capita data from the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Economic Outlook database was used to examine the cross-level interactions between individual-level predictors and country-level affluence. The findings suggest that social and cultural capitals positively influence ethical consumerism in emerging and developed markets. Further, country-level affluence moderates the relationship between socio-cultural capital and ethical consumerism for both markets. However, cultural capital proved to be a stronger predictor of ethical consumerism as country-level affluence increases. The research findings highlight meaningful cross-country-level interactions that help further understand the basis of ethical consumerism from a global perspective. (shrink)

Description: Knowledge, Truth and Realism is a collection of essays written by Pranab Kumar Sen over a period of ten years (from 1989 to 1998). The essays deal mainly with issues in Philosophy of Language and Theory of Knowledge from the standpoint of analytical philosophy. They bring forth Sen's realist philosophical position and his attempt to weave together specific questions concerning meaning, reference, truth, knowledge and objectivity in this realistic framework. By responding to and by making use of the (...) ideas of Philosophers like, Gottlob Frege, Ludwig Wittgenstein, W.V. Quine, Donald Davidson, Peter Strawson, H.P. Grice, Michael Dummett, John McDowell, Sen develops his distinctive theory of meaning and understanding along with his theory of knowledge/knowing. In doing so he also addresses the larger issue regarding the nature of philosophical analysis. The essays are a testimony to the painstaking and lifelong engagement of the Philosopher with some of the central and contemporary debates in analytical philosophy. (shrink)