While most masks have a limited effect on personal protection, how effective are they for collective protection? How to enlighten the design of masks from the perspective of collective dynamics? In this paper, we assume three preferences in the population: never wearing a mask; wearing a mask if and only if infected; always wearing a mask. We study the epidemic transmission in an open system within the Susceptible-Infected-Recovered model framework. We use agent-based Monte Carlo simulation and mean-field differential equations to (...) investigate the model, respectively. Ternary heat maps show that wearing masks is always beneficial in curbing the spread of the epidemic. Based on the model, we investigate the potential implications of different mask designs from the perspective of collective dynamics. The results show that strengthening the filterability of the mask from the face to the outside is more effective in most parameter spaces because it acts on individuals with both preferences and. However, when the fraction of individuals always wearing a mask achieves a critical point, strengthening the filterability from outside to the face becomes more effective because of the emerging hidden reality that the infected individuals become too few to utilize the filterability from their face to outside fully. (shrink)

Entretien avec Hamdy Reda, artiste qui a créé un lieu d’art, Art-el-Lewa, dans le quartier informel très densément peuplé d’Ard-el-Lewa, situé entre deux autres grands quartiers informels Imbiba and Boulak El Dakrour. Art-el-Lewa est un espace de mise en œuvre de dialogue entre artistes et société. Cet espace indépendant aide les projets artistiques à se réaliser, offre des workshops aux membres de la communauté et aux artistes émergents ; il organise des expositions et reçoit des artistes en résidence ; il (...) encourage les projets qui enrichissent la vie civique et culturelle d’Ard-el-Lewa ; il utilise l’art pour faire avancer les questions d’environnement. Hamdy Reda nous raconte pourquoi et comment il a ouvert cet espace, et quels projets le lieu a hébergés. (shrink)

The aim of this article is twofold. First is to demonstrate that most values that underpin public health policy are a source of reasonable disagreement amongst citizens to whom said policy applies....

There is an increasing interest in the possibility of using nudges to promote people's health. Following the advances in developmental biology and epigenetics, it is clear that one's health is not always the result of one's own choices. In the period surrounding pregnancy, maternal choice behaviour has a significant influence on perinatal morbidity and mortality as well as the development of chronic diseases later in life. One's health is thus a matter of one's own as well as one's maternal choices. (...) Therefore, self-regarding and other-regarding nudges should be considered as viable strategies to promote health. In this article, we introduce the concept of other-regarding nudges. We use the harm principle and the principle of beneficence to justify these other-regarding nudges. We conclude by stressing the importance of a fair assessment of expectations towards the nudgee, when determining whether a nudge is aimed at preventing harm or promoting a good. (shrink)

On political epistemology of Muhammadiyah, an Islamic organization in Indonesia.

I would like to thank all who have taken the time to read and comment on my target article in which I compare state neutrality and perfectionism as approaches to justify public health policy and ar...

Drawing on two years of ethnographic fieldwork in Egypt focused on organ transplantation, this paper examines the ways in which the “scientific” criteria of determining death in terms of brain function are contested by Egyptian doctors. Whereas in North American medical practice, the death of the “person” is associated with the cessation of brain function, in Egypt, any sign of biological life is evidence of the persistence, even if fleeting, of the soul. I argue that this difference does not exemplify (...) an irresolvable culture clash but points to an unsettling aspect of cadaveric organ procurement that has emerged wherever organ transplantation is practiced. Further, I argue that a misdiagnosis of the problem, as one about “religious extremism” or a “civilizational clash,” has obfuscated unresolved concerns about fairness, access, and justice within Egyptian medical spheres. This misdiagnosis has led to the suspension of a cadaveric procurement program for over 30 years, despite Egypt’s pioneering efforts in kidney transplantation. (shrink)

This study investigates the possible effects of self-concept, self-monitoring, and moral development level on dimensions of consumers' ethical attitudes. "Actively benefiting from illegal activities," "actively benefiting from deceptive practices," and "no harm/no foul 1—2" are defined by factor analysis as four dimensions of Turkish consumers' ethical attitudes. Logistic regression analysis is applied to data collected from 516 Turkish households. Results indicate that self-monitoring and moral development level predicted consumer ethics in relation to "actively benefiting from questionable practices" and "no harm/no (...) foul" dimensions. Actual selfconcept is also a predictor variable in relation to "no harm/no foul" dimension. Age and gender make significant differences in consumers' ethical attribute dimensions. (shrink)

Formulating sound and acceptable embryo research policy remains challenging especially in a pluralistic world. This challenge has acquired a new dimension of complexity with the advent of so-called embryo models, which are derived from stem cells. In this article, we present a normative strategy to facilitate the process of sound policy-making in the field of human embryology. This strategy involves seeking neutral agreements on higher level theories and doctrines as well as seeking agreements on the level of concrete policy proposals. (...) We call this strategy: going high and low. By going high and low, the plurality of reasonable moral and epistemic convictions of stakeholders involved in the domain of human embryology is respected while the process of policy-making in this area is improved. (shrink)

Bu makale devletin hukuki biçim aracılığıyla toplumsal bütünlüğü belirleyerek sınırlandırması ve toplumsal ilişkilerin yeniden üretimini şekillendirmesi teorik olarak ele almaktadır. Kapitalist toplumsal ilişkilerin ortaya çıkmasında ve yeniden üretilmesinde hukukun rolünün ne olduğunun anlaşılabilmesi için devlet biçiminin belirlenmesi gerekmektedir. Kapitalist toplumdaki siyasi gelişmenin temel yeniliği, şiddetin meşru kullanımına ilişkin tekelin merkezi bir devlet aygıtına hasredilmesidir. Bu durumun sivil toplumdaki üretim ilişkileri vasıtasıyla nasıl oluşup geliştiği ve zorlayıcı şiddet tekelinin bu üretim ilişkileriyle etkileşiminin içeriği, devlet biçimi tartışmasına ilişkin temel sorulardır. Makalede bu (...) sorulara yönelik ilk olarak Kelsen’in temsil ettiği pozitivist hukuk okulu yaklaşımı, ardından Weber'in modern uzmanlaşma ve ussallaşma analizinın neticesi ortaya çıkan yaklaşımı ve son olarak Paşukanis’in temsil ettiği devletin ve hukukun gelişimini tarihsel materyalist yöntemle yorumlayan yaklaşımı ele alınmıştır. (shrink)

Dans cet article, je voudrais étudier la version dite réaliste de la thèse d’indispensabilité qui donne lieu aux arguments les plus sérieux en faveur du platonisme en philosophie des mathématiques. Comme le dit très clairement Hartry Field (université de New York City), le meilleur représentant de cette version dite réaliste de la thèse d’indispensabilité n’est autre que Quine (1908- 2000). Je vais essayer donc de démontrer, contre le philosophe de New York City, comment les arguments d’indispensabilité ne justifient la thèse (...) platonicienne en philosophie des mathématiques que s’ils sont mis en relation structurelle avec ce que j’appellerai « les arguments métascientifiques ». J’essaierai donc de comprendre la nature des relations entre les arguments d’indispensabilité et les arguments métascientifiques, qui constituent, de mon point de vue, avec le réalisme onto-logique, les bases sur lesquelles s’élabore la théorie pragmatico-platonicienne et extensionnelle des mathématiques de Quine. (shrink)

Foucault, dans son Histoire de la sexualité, esquissa une anthropologie du plaisir dans l'Antiquité gréco-romaine. Ce travail avait constitué un virage, car depuis Mai 68, l'intellectuel avait fait de l'engagement le vecteur des résistances modernes. Or, cette approche fut l'objet d'une critique acerbe de la part de Baudrillard. Dans son Oublier Foucault (1976), le sociologue reprochait au philosophe de garder intacte l'instance du pouvoir comme grille d'intelligibilité ultime. Dès lors, la façon dont Foucault a orienté sa recherche, en se focalisant (...) sur la subjectivité, l'éthique de soi, l'esthétique de l'existence et le style de vie, ne serait-elle pas une manière de concéder à la critique de Baudrillard une part de vérité? Les mouvements de libération avaient provoqué chez Foucault l'espoir d'un agencement fructueux entre une sexualité renouvelée et une nouvelle culture. Or, l'évolution des sociétés a montré une adéquation entre cette nouvelle culture socio-sexuelle et la société de consommation. Cette culture n'est-elle pas devenue un modèle d'intégration à la société post-moderne, une matrice du "nouvel esprit du capitalisme", et le garant d'un nouvel ordre établi? (shrink)

Anatolia is a very colorful geography in terms of history and culture, which has hosted many civilizations. He also has a very rich accumulation in terms of religion and Sufism. With the spread of Islam in Anatolia, the dervish lodges, which added a different color to social life besides mosques and madrasas, left permanent traces in the fields of art and literatüre as well as morality and spirituality with the efforts of mytics. Diwans, especially written in the field of Sufi (...) literatüre, are the most obvious fruits of this effort. Turkish and Kurdish Diwans were added to the Sufi Divans, which were generally written in Persian and Arabic. In the first quarter of the twentieth century, Sheikh Mustafa al-Abrî, who was a sheikh in the Sayyid Ayn al-Malak Lodge in Abri willage of Bulanık district of Muş, is one of the mystics who wrote Diwan in Kurdish. Sayyid Mustafa al-Abrî, who is the Qadirî sheikh, included important social and political events of his time and some influential personalities in his Diwan, besides mystical themes. In this article, his life and his Kurdish Diwan, will be examined. (shrink)

Religious fundamentalism has been suspected as a product of simple cognitive structuring. On the other hand, recent publications have shown that cognitive structure formation is not as simple as was previously thought. The concept of the Ability to Achieve Cognitive Structure revealed that not everyone was able to form simple cognitive structure. This study employed a total of 187 Indonesian university students as participants. By the mean of Structural Equation Modeling, this study treated the desire for simple cognitive structure as (...) a “new” latent variable and examined its relation with intratextual fundamentalism using AACS as moderator. The desire for simple structure was reflected by the Need for Cognitive Structure, the Dogmatism, and the RWA. The fundamentalism was reflected by the Intratextual Fundamentalism Scale. The result showed that fundamentalism, among other things, was a product of desire for simple cognitive structure. This study also showed that AACS moderated the relation in which high AACS would lead to higher fundamentalism while low AACS would not. Implications of the findings for social psychology and cross-cultural understanding of religious fundamentalism were discussed. (shrink)

In the present paper, I assume that the notion of “truth” in philosophy would not have been clarified and tackled properly, if philosophers did not take into account earlier Arabic Medieval research contributions and build upon previous research findings. In the first place, I embark on the scrutiny of the rich aspect (or nature) of the Arabic Lexicon in terms of the “truth” meaning. In the second place, I take on the assumption that Arabic linguistic traditions imply different kinds of (...) truths, depending on various spheres of human thoughts and actions based on the logical approach to “truth” (from Al-Kindi up to Averroes via Al-Farabi and Avicenna) and the term “al-haqiqha” as transliterated from Arabic, remain central. In conclusion, I take on an approach to “truth” that gives worth to logical perspectives at the very heart of Medieval Arab traditions in the light of what I would label as the “Omni-cultural Universality of Logic and Science”. (shrink)

This paper examines Hanafi’s concept of Occidentalism in the epistemological approach. It aims to investigate the character, study source, research method,validity, and objectives of Occidentalism. The paper findings demonstrate that Occidentalism is a science which aims to dismantle the myth of Western superiority and, in turn, to build an equal civilization. The study root of Occidentalism is the formation, structure, and fate of the European consciousness. The formation comprises the exposed and unexposed sources of the European consciousness. The structure en (...) compasses the ideologies of nationalism, Zionism, Nazism, Facism, and racialism. Fate relies on the model of the relationship between the East and the West. Afterward, Hanafi employs two research methods: historical-dialectical and phenomenology. Lastly, science can be recognized as Occidentalism if it has a five fold standard: there is the dialectic of the East and the West, positioning European consciousness as the study object, self-liberation as the spirit to liberate the East from Western hegemony, dismantling the myth of cosmopolite culture, and the accomplishment of an equal civilization. (shrink)

The autonomic nervous system is the other division of the human nervous system, which is in charge of most of the automatic processes in the body including heartbeat, digestion, breathing, dilation of the pupils, constriction of pupils, ejaculation, and micturition. This work focuses on the relations and mediators implied in these functions and on the principal regulatory models. Both sympathetic and parasympathetic systems are essential in creating flexibility, and whenever a shift occurs, many health issues may develop as a result. (...) For instance, an ANS activity level too high will cause hypertension or heart issues, while an ANS activity level too low will cause anxiety or panic disorders. The review also discusses the impact of ANS and other new advancements in genetics and genetic makeup regarding stress responsiveness. Even though some people’s genetic predisposes them to certain ANS disorders they can be faced with it due to their lifestyle and stress. Nevertheless, concise information is still scarce about ANS, underlining the importance of further research to evaluate pathogenic genes, and constituent the genetic treatments to enhance the disease's negative outlook. (shrink)

Extremism has been a problematic term to define and suggests different and opposing meanings. This study explores how Twitter users conceptualize extremism in Arabic and express their opinions/arguments to construct the term. A corpus of tweets was collected from Twitter API using the word ‘تطرف أو متطرف’ in Arabic for extremist/extremism. A topic modeling algorithm was then applied to the dataset to uncover latent associated concepts underlying extremism, followed by a critical discourse analysis using Van Dijk’s Sociocognitive approach. The discursive (...) and linguistic strategies used by Twitter users to support and justify their views of extremism were examined. The findings demonstrate an ideological influence that controls the concept of extremism, keeping it open to manipulation to serve shared interests and goals. Arab users of Twitter use extremism to promote their groups’ positive schema against others-negative schema. (shrink)

The post-New Order Indonesian politics has provided a political opportunity structure for the state towards democratization. It has a double-edged sword whatsoever: on the one hand democratization could lead to the civic engagement, but on the other hand, it provides a hot bed for the flourishing of anti-civic organization. As for the latter, following the fall of authoritarian regime of new Order in 1998, Indonesians have also witnessed the birth of transnational Islamist and radical organizations threatening the state’s integrity and (...) peaceful coexistence of the citizens. Amid the public appearance of these radical organization, an issue of ideological infiltration and sabotage of radical organization upon mainstreaming moderate Muslim organizations, such as Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah do exist. This article tries to reveal the impacts of a such infiltration practices and the extent that radical narratives win the minds and hearts of important Muslim leaders. Taking a closer a look to Muslim leaders in Sampang district in the island of Madura, the centrum of traditionalist Muslim in Indonesian Islamo-landscape, finds out that intolerant and radical ideologies do resonate clearly among the leaders. This finding resort as an alarm and counter-narrative to the long-admired Islamic traditionalism as an important backbone for moderate Islam in Indonesia. (shrink)

En critiquant les philosophes qui défendent ce que nous pouvons appeler un certain " nominalisme modal" vis-à-vis des mathématiques, et en admettant l'existence des objets mathématiques qui sont indispensables pour l'activité des ...

In this comparative survey of 191 Egyptian and 92 U.S. executives, we explore the relationship between national culture and ethical decision-making within the context of business. Using Reidenbach and Robin’s (1988) multi-criteria ethics instrument, we examine how differences on two of Hofstede’s national culture dimensions, individualism/collectivism, and power distance, are related to the manner in which business practitioners make ethical decisions. Egypt and the U.S. provide an interesting comparison because of the extreme differences in their economies and related business development. (...) Our results indicate that respondents from the U.S, individualistic and low in power distance, were likely to view the decision making outcome in ethics scenarios as more unethical than the more collectivistic and high power distance Egyptians, when applying ethical criteria based on justice, utilitarianism, relativism, and (contrary to our predictions) egoism. However, we also found that both Egyptians and Americans rely on justice, utilitarianism, and relativism in predicting their intentions to behave ethically, and that Americans substitute egoism for justice, when the behavioral intentions of peers are examined. (shrink)

Abdurrahman Aliy, Felsefenin Tanrısı: Felsefi Teolojiye Giriş [The God of Philosophy: An Introduction to Philosophical Theology], 129 pp.

Is it morally justifiable to force non-consenting pregnant women to submit to caesarean surgery to save their fetus in distress? Even though proponents and opponents largely agree on the interests at stake, such as the health and life of the fetus and the respect for bodily integrity and autonomy of pregnant women, they disagree on which moral weight to attach to these interests. This is why disagreements about the justifiability of forced caesareans tend to be pervasive and intractable. To sidestep (...) this deadlock, we will focus on conditions that give rise to the ‘caesarean dilemma’ in the first place, namely the conflict between inherent norms and values medical professionals are committed to by virtue of being a medical professional. Using the reflective equilibrium, we will test the opponents’ and proponents’ considered judgments about forced caesareans against the norms and values they—as medical professionals—are committed to and determine whether they are coherent. Subsequently we will identify the proponents’ incoherencies between the considered judgments and norms and values they are committed to and conclude that as long as these incoherencies are in place, forced caesareans are morally impermissible. (shrink)

Poor pregnancy outcomes and inequalities in these outcomes remain a major challenge, even in prosperous societies that have high-quality health care and public health policy in place. In this article, we propose that justice demands the improvement of what we call the ‘health agency’ of parents-to-be as part of a response to these poor outcomes. We take health agency to have three aspects: the capacity to form health-goals one has reason to value, the control one perceives to have over achieving (...) those health-goals and the freedom one has to achieve those health-goals. We will moreover argue that this demand of justice can be best based on a perfectionist rather than neutralist method of justification. Subsequently, we will argue that perfectionist policy may be paternalistic but not wrongfully paternalistic. This leads us to conclude that perfectionism should be adopted to inform and justify public health policy that is aimed at improving health agency in general and counteracting poor pregnancy outcomes and inequalities in perinatal health outcomes in particular. (shrink)

The proposed work describes an approach for segmentation of activated sludge flocs from the microscopic images for monitoring wastewater treatment. The morphological features of flocs and filaments are related to the state of an activated sludge wastewater treatment plant and must be monitored for proper functioning. Hence, image processing and analysis could be a time-saving monitoring tool. To address this challenge, we propose a novel framework involving a multiphase edge detection algorithm based on information theory. The proposed framework is evaluated (...) and scrutinized critically considering the artifacts found in the photographs tested. To evaluate the segmentations, gold approximation of estimated truth images is created. In addition, the performance was subjectively evaluated for its potential for segmenting activated sludge images. Experimental results show that the proposed framework exhibits the good results and demonstrates its effectiveness. (shrink)

: The corpus of fatwa named as Bostānu Shaqā’iq al-Nuʿmān, recorded in the Veliyuddin Efendi section under the number 1414 at Beyazıd State Library. It has been ignored so far. Because of its name, it may be thought that it is a part of Tashkoprulüzāde’s book Shaḳā’iḳ-i Nuʿmāniyya, but it is a nuqullu fatwa collection of Babakūshī ʿAbdurrahmān Efendi. In the famous Shaqā’iq appendix Atā’ī, which gives information about the biography of Abdurrahmān Efendi does not mention the book with this (...) name. Abdurrahman Efendi who was from a family in Plovdiv region worked in different positions in Istanbul and Edirne. Then, he was appointed as a mufti to Kefe, Crimea. He died in 983/1576. There is no information about his scholarly identity in ‛Aṭā‛ī except being the intern of Abū l-Suʿūd Efendi. In this essay, first of all, the place of Babakūshī in Ottoman Islamic Law tradition will be determined, and the features of the manuscripts and some notes on the postscript will be studied. In assessment section, especially because of the notes on the manuscripts, it has to be studied in terms of Islamic Law literature and its place should be figured out in fatwa literature. Summary: Nuqullu Fatwa collections that included citations were the books that were created for people to have access to the ruling on legal issues of scholars who were appointed as Muslim judges or muftis together with their sources and background. Although there are several studies in the literature about fatwa collections with citations Babakūshī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Efendi's book titled Bostânu Shaqā'iḳ al-Nuʿmān was not included in the literature. ‛Aṭā‛ī provides information about the life of Babakūshī Abdurrahman Efendi. Atâ'î explains that he climbed the stairs with the help of Baba Efendi and joined the special group of people with aptitude at the level of apprenticeship. Then he raised also to the level of being the intern of Abū l-Suʿūd Efendi. Later, Babakūshī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān started to teach. He taught as a teacher for three years in Istanbul and then became the Mufti of Kefe replacing Molla Akmal al-Dīn. Molla Ekmeleddin, who was better known as Ekmel Efendi, just like ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Efendi, was an apprentice of Abū l-Suʿūd Efendi and would later be transferred to Cyprus after the island was conquered. According to Aṭā‛ī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Efendi remained in that position which he was appointed as Ṣahn teacher until his death and died in Zilqāda 983/February 1576. The highest position that Babakūshī took among the religious scholars organization in the Ottoman Empire was being the Mufti of Kefe. As stated by ‛Aṭā‛ī, he was appointed as the Mufti of Kefe with the title of Ṣahn teacher. Instead of giving information about his teachers, ‛Aṭā‛ī mostly concentrated on Baba Efendi who was one of his relatives. Therefore we do not have information about his mentors/teachers. We can say that he belonged to the Ottoman school of scholars since he was an apprentice of Abū l-Suʿūd Efendi. The copy which is the subject matter of this study is registered as Veliyüddin Efendi with number 1414 at Bāyezıd State Library. According to our research, the copy which has 237 sheets is the only copy of the book. From the expressions of Babakūshī in the preface, it is concluded that the book was written close to his death. There are several notes written with different pens as footnotes of the book. Here, four of them which are considered to be more important will be identified.First: Notes written with the same pen as the main text. These are generally citations from books such as Tatarkhāniyye, Hidāya, ‛İnâya, Kashf al-Asrâr Sharḥu Manār.Second: are 'maṭlabs' i.e. important matters. Third: are relatively inelaborate notes. These were written by someone who we thought was not a copyist/calligrapher when compared with the general style of the book. Fourth: Warning notes which included some questions. These are generally in Turkish. The preface of the book, provides sufficient information about who the author was and the nature of the book. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Efendi, with the intention of writing a collection, started to research taking into account imams' and shaykhs' nāsikh and mensūkh and he also considered sheikhs' explanations about what was definite and what needed caution and taqwa in practice. He recorded that this search lasted for 3 years and he referred especially to Fatāwa-yi Qādikhān and Fatāwa-yı Tatarkhāniyya within this period and additionally reviewed and studied Islamic Law books that he found in the Ottoman Empire. He described that he divided these into chapters and inserted subject matters in the footnotes. Then he described how he gave the title, Bostānu Shaqā'iḳ al-Nuʿmān to the book emphasizing especially bostan.This could be seen in the expression, Masīratan li'l-Qudāt. No reference was made to Shaqā'iḳ al-Nuʿmān in the title of the book. Probably he had his intentions due to the famous book titled Şeḳ' āiḳ-i Nuʿmaniye and his pupils). In the chapter which started with Fasl right after the preface the author said that fatwa would be issued based on the opinions of three imams, namely Abū Ḥanīfa, Abu Yūsuf and Imām Muhammed that their madhap was followed and their good morals were observed. Then, it was stated that the Mufti could issue fatwas according to the opinions of first, Abū Ḥanīfa, then Abu Yūsuf and finally Imam Muḥammed. It was also stated that if he could not find their opinions and had himself muctehid, he could give his ictihad. The Fatwa collection, Bostān, is an important work among the 16th century Ottoman books since it is an important scholar's book who had witnessed Islamic knowledge in the central Ottoman Empire and Crimean region. (shrink)

In the history of philosophy, philosophers have defined philosophy based on their own perspectives. This situation shows that it is a difficult and meaningless endeavor to put forward an understanding of philosophy that has clear boundaries and is accepted by everyone. However, despite these differences in definitions, there are some common points. Perhaps the most important of these common points is that philosophy is a stance, a positioning activity in the face of truth. In this positioning, William James tried to (...) find the moderate path between the currents of rationalism and empiricism and took a stance based on concrete differences in life. Like the empiricists, he tried to keep people's relations with facts alive, but at the same time, he did not exclude religion by adopting a rationalist attitude. However, James argued that abstract concepts cannot have meaning unless they find their counterpart in life. According to James, a life based only on abstract principles would not be qualified. In this study, I will try reconciling William James’ attitude towards abstract principles with practical life. (shrink)