Articles on Jaina spiritual life and philosophy.

In'gan kwa sin, kŭrigo chonggyo -- Chonggyo ran muŏt in'ga (1985) -- Chabi ŭi yullihak (1990) -- Silchonjŏk sont'aek kwa sahoejŏk kyubŏm -- In'gan kwa insaeng e kwanhan sŏngch'al.

Islamic ethics in the light of Koranic teachings.

The concept of quality of life is the basis for a new paradigm of clinical medicine. Its assessment is considered to be an important instrument in determining disease severity and effectiveness of different treatment modalities. Our studies are devoted to the problem of diabetes complications especially anemia in patients with diabetic kidney disease. Anemia in subjects with diabetic nephropathy may result from various pathogenic factors including erythropoietin deficiency, iron deficiency, vitamin B12 and/or folate deficiencies, the effects of proinflammatory cytokines (...) etc. Diabetic patients with anemia are at increased risk of cardiovascular accidents and death. The aim of this study was to assess the influence of anemia on the quality of life of patients with early stages of diabetic nephropathy. We investigated 127 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and early diabetic nephropathy. Anemia was defined according to the World Health Organization criteria. Anemic patients were divided into three groups according to the stage of chronic kidney disease. Patients’ quality of life was assessed with SF-36 health survey. Anemic patients had lower scores of physical role functioning and emotional role functioning as compared to the patients with normal hemoglobin level, irrespective of the stage of chronic kidney disease. Patients with anemia and chronic kidney disease stage 3 had lower scores of general health perceptions, physical functioning, bodily pain, vitality and mental health than patients in the non-anemic group. Social role functioning was similar in anemic and non-anemic patients. The possible mechanisms and implications of the above mentioned findings are discussed with a medical and humanitarian perspective. The directions of further studies are proposed. (shrink)

jild-i 1. qismat-i 1. Qavānīn-i Qurʼān dar ḥifẓ-i nāmūs.

Introduction Hundreds of thousands of premature neonates born in low-income countries are implicitly denied treatment each year. Studies from India show that treatment is rationed even for neonates born at 32 gestational age weeks (GAW), and multiple external factors influence treatment decisions. Is withholding of life-saving treatment for children born between 28 and 32 GAW acceptable from an ethical perspective? Method A seven-step impartial ethical analysis, including outcome analysis of four accepted priority criteria: severity of disease, treatment effect, cost (...) effectiveness and evidence for neonates born at 28 and 32 GAW. Results The ethical analysis sketches out two possibilities: (a) It is not ethically permissible to limit treatment to neonates below 32 GAW when assigning high weight to health maximisation and overall health equality. Neonates below 32 GAW score high on severity of disease and efficiency and cost-effectiveness of treatment if one gives full weight to early years of a newborn life. It is in the child's best interest to be treated. (b) It can be considered ethically permissible if high weight is assigned to reducing inequality of welfare and maximising overall welfare and/or not granting full weight to early years of newborns is considered acceptable. From an equity-motivated health and welfare perspective, we would not accept (b), as it relies on accepting the lack of proper welfare policies for the poor and disabled in India. Conclusion Explicit priority processes in India for financing neonatal care are needed. If premature neonates are perceived as worth less than other patient groups, the reasons should be explored among a broad range of stakeholders. (shrink)

In Romances with Schools, John Goodlad steps out from behind the public persona of distinguished scholar and advocate for public schooling to offer a moving personal account of a life devoted to educating the young. He deftly interweaves fascinating personal details with reflections on many of the larger issues in education that he has explored throughout his career.

This paper describes Confucian ceremonies and the objectives that were assigned to them in socio-political life and religious practices, as well as the artistic and spiritual journey aimed at self-realization.

Collected articles on spiritual life based on Bābubhāī Raṇapurā, 1940, Hindu saint; previously published in Kacchamitra, a Gujarati daily.

The principal purpose of this text is to show that Michel Henry’s radicalization ofphenomenology conduces to a problematic interpretation of the world and human desire, and to proposea solution to the problem from the philosophy of Augustine of Hippo. If for Henry, Life is absoluteimmanence, for Augustine it is also extasis. If for the first desire has to be reduced to mere immanence,for the later this desire (appetitus) is one of the ways in which man can encounter the Absolute.

Building on Alfred Schütz’s work, this essay conceptually scrutinizes virtual worlds with an aim to clarify what is at stake with the virtualization of the late modern society. The diffusion of technological artifacts, devices of communication and the Internet in particular, have transformed the life-world of essentially everyone. In the past few years our everyday life, including its livelihoods, has seen a proliferation of activities within virtual worlds, such as games and virtual social networks. We can now live (...) and experience actively in different virtual realms, as compared to being mere passive receivers in the era of television and radio. This has direct implications for what is inherently relevant for people and, in consequence, we have to take such transformation into account also in conceptual terms. This article makes a major contribution to the conceptual understanding of phenomenological sociology that due to the virtualization, we can no more equate the paramount reality as the zone of primary relevance. The paramount reality as conceived as the sensorily perceivable, physical world of concrete objects is increasingly far from being equated to that part of the world within our reach which we can immediately observe and also at least partially dominate, that is, the zone of primary relevance. It is furthermore argued that the ongoing virtualization of societies urges us to conceive of virtual worlds as transforming the chief finite province of meaning, that of the world of working, instead of seeing virtual worlds merely as other sub-universes of reality. (shrink)