Buddhism and Jainism share the concepts of karma, rebirth, and the desirability of escaping from rebirth. The literature of both traditions contains many stories about past, and sometimes future, lives which reveal much about these foundational doctrines. Naomi Appleton carefully explores how multi-life stories served to construct, communicate, and challenge ideas about karma and rebirth within early South Asia, examining portrayals of the different realms of rebirth, the potential paths and goals of human beings, and the biographies of (...) ideal religious figures. Appleton also deftly surveys the ability of karma to bind individuals together over multiple lives, and the nature of the supernormal memory that makes multi-life stories available in the first place. This original study not only sheds light on the individual preoccupations of Buddhist and Jain tradition, but contributes to a more complete history of religious thought in South Asia, and brings to the foreground long-neglected narrative sources. (shrink)

This article explores the role of paccekabuddhas in stories of the Buddha’s past lives in early Buddhist narrative collections in P?li and Sanskrit. In early Buddhism paccekabuddhas are liminal figures in two senses: they appear between Buddhist dispensations, and they are included as a category of awakening between samm?sambuddha and arahat. Because of their appearance in times of no Buddhism, paccekabuddhas feature regularly in j?taka literature, as exemplary renouncers, teachers, or recipients of gifts. This article asks what the liminal status (...) of paccekabuddhas means for their interactions with the Buddha and his past lives as Bodhisatta. (shrink)

The Asvaraja story relates the adventures of a caravan of merchants shipwrecked on an island of demonesses and rescued by a flying horse, the asvaraja, ‘king of horses’. The Simhala story continues this narrative to include the chief merchant, Simhala, being followed home by a demoness, who tries to get him back before seducing and eating the king. Simhala is crowned king and invades the island. Each story has many versions, both Mahayana and non-Mahayana. This paper examines five key versions: (...) birth story with ‘ocean of samsara’ metaphor; political and quasi-historical narrative of the invasion of Sri Lanka by the Sinhalese; warning that ‘all women are demonesses’; glorifi cation of the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara; and Newar warning of the dangers of travelling to Tibet. Each version reveals some of the issues that its community is preoccupied with. (shrink)

Like Buddhist traditions, Jain traditions preserve many stories about people’s past lives. Unlike Buddhist traditions, relatively few of these stories narrate the past lives of the tradition’s central figure, the jina. In Jainism there is no equivalent path to the bodhisatta path; the karma that guarantees jinahood is bound a mere two births before that attainment, and the person who attracts that karma cannot do so willfully, nor is he aware of it being bound. There is therefore no Jain equivalent (...) to the ubiquitous j?taka literature. In this paper I will explore what the absence of a j?taka genre in Jain traditions tells us about the genre’s role in Buddhism. Focusing upon the multi-life stories of Gautama Buddha and Vardham?na Mah?v?ra, I will ask how these two strikingly similar narratives betray some fundamental differences between Buddhist and Jain understandings of the ultimate religious goal and the method of its attainment. (shrink)

Metaphor and Literalism in Buddhism: The Doctrinal History of Nirvana, Soonil Hwang, pp. xiii + 160, £65.00. ISBN 0 415 35550 8.

Buddhist Path, Buddhist Teachings: Studies in Memory of L.S. Cousins, edited by Naomi Appleton and Peter Harvey. Equinox Publishing, 2019. 324pp. Hb. $53, ISBN-13: 9781781798928.

Cambridge University Press, 2014. 244pp. Hb. £67.00; Pb. £23.99. ISBN-13: 9781107566142.

Narrative Visions and Visual Narratives in Indian Buddhism. Edited by Naomi Appleton. Sheffield, UK: Equinox Publishing Ltd., 2022. Pp. 292. $40.95 (cloth); $35 (paper).

The geosciences include a wide spectrum of disciplines ranging from paleontology to climate science, and involve studies of a vast range of spatial and temporal scales, from the deep-time history of microbial life to the future of a system no less immense and complex than the entire Earth. Modeling is thus a central and indispensable tool across the geosciences. Here, we review both the history and current state of model-based inquiry in the geosciences. Research in these fields makes use of (...) a wide variety of models, such as conceptual, physical, and numerical models, and more specifically cellular automata, artificial neural networks, agent-based models, coupled models, and hierarchical models. We note the increasing demands to incorporate biological and social systems into geoscience modeling, challenging the traditional boundaries of these fields. Understanding and articulating the many different sources of scientific uncertainty – and finding tools and methods to address them – has been at the forefront of most research in geoscience modeling. We discuss not only structuralmodel uncertainties, parameter uncertainties, and solution uncertainties, but also the diverse sources of uncertainty arising from the complex nature of geoscience systems themselves. Without an examination of the geosciences, our philosophies of science and our understanding of the nature of model-based science are incomplete. (shrink)

Machery et al.’s 2004 x-phi project has been widely criticised for ambiguities contained in the expression ‘talk about’. Interestingly, although ‘about’ plays a prominent part in the debate, aboutness has not been a topic. This paper discusses this aspect. Alas, it must thereby add a further ambiguity to the list, the ambiguity between aboutness and reference, and thus also between subject matter and referent. It explains the distinction between intra-categorical aboutness which makes no ontological demands, and cross-categorical reference which requires (...) the referent to exist. It then analyses the 4-fold embedding contained in Machery et al.’s study and shows how the aboutness-reference distinction bears on it. (shrink)

_The Contradictions of Modern Moral Philosophy_ is a highly original and radical critique of contemporary moral theory. Paul Johnston demonstrates that much recent moral philosophy is confused about the fundamental issue of whether there are correct moral judgements. He shows that the standard modern approaches to ethics cannot justify - or even make much sense of - traditional moral beliefs. Applied rigorously, these approaches suggest that we should reject ethics as a set of outdated and misguided claims. Rather than facing (...) up to this conclusion, most recent moral philosophy consists of attempts to find some ways of preserving moral beliefs. This places a contradiction at the heart of moral philosophy. As a resilt it is often impossible to tell whether a contemporary philosopher ultimately rejects or endorses the idea of objective right and wrong. On the basis of a Wittgenstein approach Paul Johnston puts forward an alternative account of ethics that avoids this contradiction and recognises that the central issues of ethics cannot be resolved by conceptual analysis. He then uses this account to highlight the contradictions of important contemporary moral theorists such as Bernard Williams, Alasdair MacIntyre, Thomas Nagel and Charles Taylor. (shrink)

Volume 20, Issue 7, July 2020, Page 77-80.

Carnap's Logical Syntax of Language (1937) contains an unfortunate passage, the ‘Babylon passage’, explaining what it is for a linguistic expression to be about a subject matter. Past criticism has only addressed Carnap's mistaken claim that the occurrence of a denoting term is necessary and sufficient for a linguistic expression to be about the denotatum. But the passage contains further problems: a form‐object confusion due to the ambiguity of ‘lecture’; a use‐mention problem with the word ‘Babylon’; and finally, the fact (...) that its key sentence ????1 is a counterexample to Carnap's own definition of aboutness. These flaws notwithstanding, the passage's ‘non‐formal consideration’ that a statement's truth or falsity should matter to our knowledge about the subject matter's properties, is an important contribution to aboutness theory. This paper discusses all these pros and cons of the passage in depth with a view to their consequences for current work on subject matter. (shrink)

As a social issue, violence continues to manifest and remains a current topic of academic research. Scientific studies mostly focus on the individual and societal dimensions of violence; however, studies that address violence in the context of everyday life practices remain limited. This study argues that violence has a masculine character as a result of gender inequality and within the framework of the masculinity-power relationality. On the other hand, this study considers folk dances as a product of social culture and (...) views them as an effective form of non-verbal communication within society. The study is based on the claim that, in folk dances observed in formal or informal ceremonial events, which are part of everyday life and contain elements of violence, violence is legitimized as a spectacle. In this context, local folk dances from different regions of Turkey, performed exclusively by male dancers and portraying themes of heroism, victory, bravery, and courage, have been selected as examples. These include Trabzon Bıçak Horonu, Bursa Kılıç-Kalkan, Manisa Seğmen Sekmesi, Balıkesir Bengi, Erzurum Köroğlu Barı, Giresun Tüfekli Çandır Karşılaması, and Diyarbakır Şur-u Mertal. The violent content of these dances has been analyzed through the method of semiotic analysis. Weapons used in these dances, fast and rhythmic tunes, and rigid movements have been considered as indicators of violence. It has been concluded that these dances, admired and enthusiastically applauded, normalize violence. This study makes a significant contribution by addressing folk dances within the context of violence and aims to fill the gap in the literature in this field. (shrink)

Drawing on the great wealth of knowledge and experience of education practitioners and theorists, the volumes in the Sociology of Education set of the International library of Sociology explore the very important relationship between education and society. These books became standard texts for actual and intending teachers. Drawing upon comparative material from Israel, France and Germany, titles in this set also discuss the key questions of girls' and special needs education, and the psychology of education.

The purpose of this article is to suggest that the fictionalist’s emotions toward religious discourse could be better supported than the current literature allows. By ‘fictionalist’ I mean those of whom interpret religious discourse as useful fiction. The threefold structure of the article will argue that: (1) the concept of aliefs has been falsely equated with the concept of imagining, (2) the fictionalist ought to adopt a hybrid theory of emotions rather than a cognitive appraisal and, (3) if (1) and (...) (2) are accepted, then key issues concerning the genuineness and appropriateness of emotions toward fictional entities can be overcome. I will conclude that something significant is at stake here, and that is whether or not the fictionalist’s emotions are deemed ‘real’ or not. Thus, to provide the best defence of the fictionalist’s emotions is to: (A) separate that which has been lumped together, that is: quasi emotions and alief-evoked emotions (B) argue for the hybrid account of emotions and, (C) defend the genuine and appropriate nature of fictional emotions. (shrink)

Psychiatrists assert that mental illness is a physiological brain disorder. The anti-psychiatry movement refutes this on grounds of lack of evidence claiming that mental illness is socially defined. Len Bowers offers a rational, objective and philosophical critique of the theories of mental illness as a social construct and concludes that, though sometimes misguided, they cannot be wholly rejected. This critical scrutiny of a controversial and keenly-debated issue will be of interest to psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, sociologists and professionals in paramedical (...) disciplines. (shrink)

This is the first book to take nursing ethics beyond stock 'moral concepts' to a critical examination of the fundamental assumptions underlying the very nature of nursing. It takes as its point of departure the difficulties nurses experience practising within the confines of a bioethical model of health and illness and a hierarchical, technocratic health care system. The contributors go on to deal openly and honestly with controversial issues faced by nurses, such as euthanasia and HIV.

Film-based learning projects enhance communication proficiency by immersing students in visual and auditory experiences that improve their understanding, skills, confidence, and creativity in conveying ideas. This study investigates the impact of film-based learning initiatives on students' communication skills through a qualitative methods approach. Data were collected from 150 students using a pre-post-test evaluation, focusing on five key variables: understanding of content, skills improvement, confidence in communication, proficiency in communication, and strategic problem-solving skills. Qualitative data provided a comprehensive understanding of how (...) film-based learning influences communication. It shows students' skills in using SPSS to communicate results from a variety of statistical studies, such as the Wilcoxon signed-rank test and paired sample t-test, which showed a significant improvement in communication ability across these variables. The paired sample t-test highlighted notable gains in communication skills, while the Wilcoxon test confirmed these improvements by analyzing ranks and medians. The findings underscore the effectiveness of film-based interventions in significantly enhancing various aspects of students' communication abilities. (shrink)

Cette étude se focalise sur différentes méthodes utilisées pour l’analyse phonologique de la parole aphasique. Nous comparons des tâches expérimentales de répétition et de dénomination d’image, des tâches d’élicitation semi-structurées et de la parole naturelle. Nous montrons que le type de mots rencontrés, le type de consonnes ou encore le nombre de productions diffèrent selon la tâche. Si les protocoles expérimentaux permettent d’obtenir toutes les cibles voulues, les tâches d’élicitation semi-structurée permettent d’avoir un plus grand nombre d’occurrences de sons et (...) de mots et des productions subissant des transformations différentes. (shrink)

I graduated from medical school in 1957. I first went into hospital practice for 3½; years, and then went to Africa for 5 years before returning to Holland to resume practicing as a Family Physician. I have also participated in the postgraduate training and education for family doctors in Amsterdam, Currently, there are approximately 2,300 patients in my practice, about average for a Dutch physi- cian. Ten percent of those patients are over the age of 65.

Teacher perspectives on imagination and visualization in early childhood training perform an important part in molding the cognitive and emotional improvement of young learners. The study is based on instructors’ self-mentioned perspectives, which can be subjective and motivated through personal biases, experiences, and interpretations of imagination and visualization. In this study, the teacher's perspective on imagination and visualization in early childhood education was investigated. The study included 250 primary school teachers, demonstrating the quality of the findings and reflecting their opinions. (...) The study used SPSS version 28 software to analyse the teacher's opinion with the utilization of the chi-square test and confirmatory factor analysis test. The result of research indicates that elementary school pupils develop their imagination through fairy tales, character role plays, and language training that uses linguistic codes to transmit imagery. (shrink)

Two days following her arrest, a forty-four-year-old woman died in jail from aspiration pneumonia secondary to Untreated opiate withdrawal. The New York State Commission of Corrections concluded in its final report that had adequate medical evaluation and treatment been afforded, her death would have been prevented. A forty-six-year-old male with a history of alcohol dependence was arrested for trespassing and held in the county jail. Three days later he became agitated and aggressive. Following physician orders, deputies placed him in restraints. (...) He subsequently vomited and seized. Fifteen minutes later, he experienced respiratory arrest and died.These cases highlight a serious, but neglected problem in jails across the country: inadequate assessment and treatment of drug and alcohol withdrawal among arrestees. In this article, we show that untreated drug or alcohol withdrawal is associated with adverse outcomes including needless pain and suffering, medical morbidity, and in some instances, death. (shrink)

_Philosophy and Theory in Educational Research: Writing in the Margin_ explores the practise of reading and writing in philosophy of education and education theory. Showing that there is no ‘right way’ to approach research in educational philosophy, but illustrating its possibilities, this text invites an engagement with philosophy as a possibility for educational research. Drawing on their own research, theoretical and philosophical sources, the authors investigate the important issue of what it means to read and write when there is no (...) prescribed structure. Innovative in its contribution to the literature, this edited volume enlightens readers in three ways. The volume focuses on the practices of reading and writing that are central to research in educational philosophy, suggesting that these practices constitute the research, rather than that they simply support the research. It is not a prescriptive guide and should not be read procedurally. Rather, it is intended to illustrate the possibilities for this kind of research, and to suggest starting points for those interested in pursuing research projects. Finally, attention is given to the ways in which conducting educational philosophy can be educative in itself, both to the researcher in writing it, and to its audience in reading it. With contributions from international scholars in the field of philosophy of education, this book forms a valuable guide for practitioner-researchers, taught postgraduate and doctoral students, and early career researchers in university education departments. Academic staff seeking to introduce their students to philosophy-as-research without wishing to offer a prescriptive ‘how to’ guide will also find this book of particular interest. (shrink)

How an abstract immaterial being is connected to a physical thing has been viewed variously by western philosophers who considered the issue prior to their Muslim counterparts.Muslim theologians and philosophers, however, developed the related discussions which became heated following the translation of logical books and essays throughout the Translation Era.The focus of this article, besides clarifying the ideas raised by Muslim philosophers in this regard,is to shed light on Mulla Sadra's opinion and its influence on the later philosophers, Abd-ul-Razzaq Lahiji (...) in particular.To explain his opinion,Mulla Sadra primarily brings a proof to establish the unity of the soul,and to prove this,he has refuted the reasons used by the opposing philosophers through negation and affirmation.Using negation,he comments on why there can't be a unity of soul, and then refers to his opponent's inability to distinguish between specific unity and generic unity considering the latter equal to vegetable,animal and human spirits.Soul and body,Mulla Sadra reiterates,are attached to each other in two ways; in one way,soul is attached to body and yet it is contingent on itself and not on the person's being; in the other way,soul is attached to body while the person's potentialities are actualized; this second type of attachment relates to obtaining existential virtues.It must be noted that Mulla Sadra's belief in these two types of attachment results from his belief in the trans-substantial motion in which soul is also involved.Mulla Sadra works out a solution to the question of relation between soul and body and their effects on one another by proposing the mediation of a veiled spirit, since the soul which belongs to a world of pure light does not involve itself directly in the affairs of the dark body. The veiled spirit is as subtle as the non-material soul and as corporeal as it needs in connectionwith body.This view has been argued by Allameh Tabatabii who thinks corporeal qualities and ontological status must be kept separated and not be mixed.Lahiji,on the other hand, seems to have accepted Mulla Sadra's idea looking at it as a philosophical question,not a medical case. He,like Mulla Sadra, while considering unity for soul, thinks of it as having properties such as sensation imagination estimation intellection. According to Lahiji,the unity of soul and body is like the unity of matter and form; however,unlike natural forms,it does not subsist in matter and interestingly,this notion resembles Neo-Platonist views. (shrink)