How do people learn multisensory, or amodal, representations, and what consequences do these representations have for perceptual performance? We address this question by performing a rational analysis of the problem of learning multisensory representations. This analysis makes use of a Bayesian nonparametric model that acquires latent multisensory features that optimally explain the unisensory features arising in individual sensory modalities. The model qualitatively accounts for several important aspects of multisensory perception: (a) it integrates information from multiple sensory sources in such a (...) way that it leads to superior performances in, for example, categorization tasks; (b) its performances suggest that multisensory training leads to better learning than unisensory training, even when testing is conducted in unisensory conditions; (c) its multisensory representations are modality invariant; and (d) it predicts ‘‘missing” sensory representations in modalities when the input to those modalities is absent. Our rational analysis indicates that all of these aspects emerge as part of the optimal solution to the problem of learning to represent complex multisensory environments. (shrink)

This article analyzes the chapter on ethics from Müneccimbaşı Ahmed Dede’s (d.1702) commentary Sharḥ al-Akhlāq al-‘Aḍuḍ, a practical philosophy of ethics, household management, and politics. Müneccimbaşı lived from the mid-17th to the beginning of the 18 th century in the Ottoman period. Firstly, considering the period in which Müneccimbaşı’s commentary was written, it can be seen as a renewal and adjustment of the old tradition in terms of moral/practical philosophy. However, in the context of philosophical ethics, the commentary aimed to (...) renew and update the ancient philosophy not as a separation of methods but within the framework of expanding the area of integrated methods. The second aim expressed the problematic of combining peripatetic philosophy’s virtue theory with the method of purification and abstraction from physical, bodily pleasure and other things through mujāhada [spiritual struggle] and riyāḍa [asceticism] in Sufi thought in order to see and know the essence of the absolute lights, which is the purpose of Ishrāqī wisdom. Accordingly, virtue theory involves having the temperaments and behaviors arising from the powers of desire and anger from the human soul become mediocre and moderate in terms of quantity and quality through wisdom. (shrink)

This book focuses on sovereignty referendums, which have been used throughout different historical periods of democratization, decolonization, devolution, secession and state creation. Referendums on questions of sovereignty and self-determination have been a significant element of the international political and legal landscape since the French Revolution, and have been a central element in the resolution of territorial issues from the referendum in Avignon in 1791 until today. More recent examples include Quebec, East Timor, New Caledonia, Puerto Rico and South Sudan. The (...) global aim of this book is to achieve a better empirical and legal understanding of sovereignty referendums and related problems in international and national law and politics. Accordingly, it presents readers a comprehensive study of sovereignty referendums from the perspectives of both international and constitutional law. (shrink)

The present article deals with the developments in Islamic theology in higher education in Europe with a focus on those in Germany. The main objectives of the study are to identify the developments regarding Islamic theology at European universities in recent years and to evaluate these developments in the context of the opportunities and problems. Since European states and nations, possessing Judeo-Christian-Western values, are in search of ways to enable Muslims to live in harmony with themselves due to the growing (...) Muslim share of the population throughout Europe. This issue has great importance for the future of Islam and Muslims in Europe. One aspect of these pursuits concerns the establishment academic programmes on/over Islamic theology at European universities. The question of “Is it possible to develop an interpretation of Islam that will live in harmony with European values?” is an important issue that is being focused on across Europe, especially in Germany. The academic studies of Islamic theology, addressing this question, started in the 2000s and has gained momentum over the past decade. Creating an understanding of Islam to live in peace with Western European values and educating people who will provide Islamic religious education and religious services within this scope are the main goals of the initiatives for introducing the Islamic theology programmes at European universities. The subject is addressed by the autobiographical methods in the light of many years of experience and the literature survey. (shrink)

Türkiye'de din eğitimi bilimi, Ankara Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi'ndeki akademik disiplinler içinde doğmuş ve alanın ilk akademisyenleri bu fakültede yetişmiştir. Fakültenin açılışından uzun bir süre sonra kurulan Din Eğitimi Anabilim Dalı, yeni kurulan ilahiyat fakültelerinin din eğitimi akademisyenlerini yetiştirmede öncü rol oynamıştır. Bu makalede, alanında ilk ve lider olmasından dolayı Ankara Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi üzerine yoğunlaşılarak, din eğitiminin Türkiye'de bilimsel bir disiplin olarak gelişmesi tartışılmaktadır. Ayrıca, Türkiye'deki mevcut din eğitiminin genel kurumsal görünümü ile ilgili bilgi verilmektedir. Araştırmada, din eğitimi bölümünün tarihsel (...) gelişimini ortaya koymak amacıyla Ankara Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi arşivleri incelenmiştir. İlk elden bilgiler, Yönetim Kurulu, Profesörler ve Fakülte Kurulu karar defterlerinden alınmıştır. Din Eğitimi Bölümü'nün karakteristik özellikleri, bilimsel yönelimleri ve katkıları incelenirken, bölümün akademisyenleri tarafından yürütülen bilimsel çalışmalar ve onların lisans ve lisansüstü öğrencilerine atıfta bulunulmuştur. In this article, the theoretical and practical contributions concerning the rise and development of religious education science, its basic characteristics, orientations and fields as an academic discipline in Turkey are discussed. Religious education made its first step into academic disciplines at the Ankara University Divinity Faculty. And first academicians in the field of religious education were taught at this faculty. Department of Religious Education, which was established after a long time, took the lead in educating religious education academicians in newly established divinity faculties. Moreover; the end of this article, information is given in relation to the general institutional appearance of religious education in nowdays Turkey. During the research, in order to reveal the historical development of department of religious education, archives of Ankara University Divinity Faculty were examined. First-hand information was derived from decision books of Administrative, Professors and Faculty Board. When exploring the characteristic features, scientific orientations and contributions of Department of Religious Education, the scientific works carried out by department’s academicians and their graduate and postgraduate students were referred to. (shrink)

Bu çalışma İbn Sînâ (ö. 428/1037) felsefesinde mantıkî tümelin tümel olmak bakımından değerine ve Gazzâlî’nin (ö. 505/1111) mantıkî tümel bağlamında İbn Sînâ’ya yönelttiği eleştirilere odaklanmaktadır. Bu iki düşünürün tümel ve tümel türlerini nasıl açıkladıklarına değinip, onların düşünce sisteminde tümelin tekabül ettiği manayı ortaya koyarak Gazzâlî’nin İbn Sînâ’ya yönelttiği eleştirilerinin felsefi analizi yapılmaktadır. Buna göre İbn Sînâ tümelin üç türünden bahsetmektedir. Bu tümeller tabiî, aklî ve mantıkî olarak üç türe ayrılır. Bu tümeller arasındaki ilişkiyse zâtî bir ilişkiye dayanır. Bu türden ilişkiyi (...) belirleyen ve ilke veren ise tümellerin dışında olmak zorundadır. Ona göre tümellerin anlamını ve tümel türleri arasındaki zâtî ilişkiyi varlık kavramı belirlemektedir. Bu bakımdan aklî tümel tabiî tümelin makulü; aklî tümel mantıkî tümelin lazımı olabilir. Öyleyse İbn Sînâ’da tümel kavramı varlığa ilişkindir. Gazzâlî’de ise tümelin üç türünden bahsedebiliriz. O tümelin türlerini isimlendirmez ama onları betimleyerek birbirinden ayırır. Onun ayrımında ise ortaklık kavramı bilfiil ve bilkuvve olmak bakımından ele alınır ve bu kavramsal ayrımlardan hareketle varlık taksim edilir. Bu bakımdan İbn Sînâ’nın tümellere yüklediği anlam ile Gazzâlî’nin tümellere yüklediği anlam arasında arızî bir ayrımdan söz edemeyiz. Bunun tam aksine iki düşünürünün tümellere yüklediği anlam arasında zâtî bir farklılık vardır. Bu ayrılıktan hareketle Gazzâlî’nin İbn Sînâ’ya yönelttiği eleştiriler de zâtî bir nitelik arz etmektedir. Gazzâlî’nin İbn Sînâ’ya yönelttiği eleştirilerin en açık göstergelerinden biri onun mantıkî tümele yüklediği anlam ve mantıkî tümel bağlamında verdiği örnekte yatmaktadır. Gazzâlî mantıkî tümeli bilkuvve ve bilfiil olmak bakımından ortaklığı kabul etmeyen mana olarak ele alarak ondaki ortaklığı ise tasdiğe konu olan şeyin dışında bir nedene bağlamaktadır. İbn Sînâ, Gazzâlî’nin mantıkî tümele yüklediği anlamın, söylenmenin tasdikin dışında olması hususuna katılmakla beraber tasavvura konu olmayı açıkça vurgulamaktadır. Gazzâlî ise İbn Sînâ’nın bu gönderimini göz ardı etmiş ve mantıkî tümel bağlamında verdiği “İlah” örneğinden hareketle İbn Sînâ’nın bunu kabul edeceğini vurgulamıştır. Halbuki İbn Sînâ’nın felsefi sisteminde “İlah” lafzının tasavvura konu olması mümkün değildir. Çünkü “İlah” tasavvur edilmez ama idrak edilir. Ona göre tasavvura konu olanlar bilkuvve çokluk barındırır. Ama “İlah” lafzı ancak zorunlu varlık olması bakımından tasavvurun konusu olmaya elverişli değildir. Bu bakımdan Gazzâlî’nin eleştirilerinin beş sanat bakımından cedelî mi yoksa safsata mı olduğu analiz edilebilir. Gazzâlî’nin hem mantıkî tümele yüklediği anlam hem de bu anlam için verdiği örnekler onun eleştirilerinin safsata türünden olduğunun zâtî niteliğini teşkil etmektedir. (shrink)

By focusing on the works and intellectual network of the Timurid historian Sharaf al Dīn ʻAlī Yazdī (d.1454), this book presents a holistic view of intellectual life in fifteenth century Iran. İlker Evrim Binbaş argues that the intellectuals in this period formed informal networks which transcended political and linguistic boundaries, and spanned an area from the western fringes of the Ottoman State to bustling late medieval metropolises such as Cairo, Shiraz, and Samarkand. The network included an Ottoman revolutionary, a (...) Mamluk prophet, and a Timurid occultist, as well as physicians, astronomers, devotees of the secret sciences, and those political figures who believed that the network was a force to be taken seriously. Also discussing the formation of an early modern Islamicate republic of letters, this book offers fresh insights on the study of intellectual history beyond the limitations imposed by nationalist methodologies, established genres, and recognized literary traditions. (shrink)

Rituals are a very important part of daily life, traditions, cultural and religious gatherings and have a significant role on teaching about cultural heritage and social codes. Teaching about religious and cultural rituals have also important effects on personal development, acculturation and social engagement of an individual. Exploring and understanding the personal, cultural and social aspects of rituals is an important purpose of education and especially religious education. Educational drama offers educational environments that students can improve creativity, critical thinking, empathy, (...) communication skills, knowing others and respect to differences. Creative drama offers a suitable learning environment for students to understand social aspects and importance of rituals it allows students to share their previous experiences and to learn from other students. The aim of this article is to determine the effects of creative drama on teaching about religious and cultural rituals in the school context. For this purpose, creative drama sessions on daily prayer in Islam, fasting in Ramadan, religious feasts in Islam, month of Muharrem and Ashoura and Nawruz Festival has been carried out with 16 secondary school students. Research data has been gathered with focus group interviews and analyzed with thematic analysis method via NVIVO program. It is determined that students have reached an understanding about; basic information about rituals, understanding the source of rituals, being eager to participate to the rituals and knowing about others. These findings can be considered as learning outcome of creative drama sessions on cultural and religious rituals. And students have found creative drama sessions are beneficial in regard of active participation, sharing personal experiences and exploring differences. (shrink)

Two meta-analyses were conducted to examine two potential sources of spatial orientation biases in human profile drawings by brain-intact individuals. The first examined profile facing direction as function of hand used to draw. The second examined profile facing direction in relation to directional scanning biases related to reading/writing habits. Results of the first meta-analysis, based on 27 study samples with 4171 participants, showed that leftward facing of profiles (from the viewer's perspective) was significantly associated with using the right hand to (...) draw. The reading/writing direction meta-analysis, based on 10 study samples with 1552 participants, suggested a modest relationship between leftward profile facing and primary use of a left-to-right reading/writing direction. These findings suggest that biomechanical and cultural factors jointly influence hand movement preferences and in turn the direction of facing of human profile drawings. -/- . (shrink)

Evidentiality refers to the linguistic marking of the nature/directness of source of evidence of an asserted event. Some languages (e.g., Turkish) mark source obligatorily in their grammar, while other languages (e.g., English) provide only lexical options for conveying source. The present study examined whether or under what conditions firsthand source information is relied on more than nonfirsthand sources in establishing discourse coherence. Turkish- and English-speaking participants read a series of somewhat incongruous two-sentence narratives and were to come up with a (...) way of completing each narrative so that it would form a coherent story. Each narrative contrasted two source types (firsthand vs. hearsay, firsthand vs. inference, or inference vs. hearsay) and two information types (general vs. particular information) each presented first or second. Analysis of story completions showed greater overall reliance on firsthand information when it was presented second and referred to a particular event. When the firsthand source occurred first and the particular event occurred second, the latter was favored, especially by Turkish participants. Taken together, the findings suggest that evidentiality interacts with information type in establishing discourse coherence and that both firsthand and particular information are relied on more when presented later rather than earlier in discourse. (shrink)

Finding something humorous is intrinsically rewarding and may facilitate emotion regulation, but what creates humour has been underexplored. The present experimental study examined humour generated under controlled conditions with varying social, affective, and cognitive factors. Participants listed five ways in which a set of concept pairs (e.g. MONEY and CHOCOLATE) were similar or different in either a funny way (intentional humour elicitation) or a “catchy” way (incidental humour elicitation). Results showed that more funny responses were produced under the incidental condition, (...) and particularly more for affectively charged than neutral concepts, for semantically unrelated than related concepts, and for responses highlighting differences rather than similarities between concepts. Further analyses revealed that funny responses showed a relative divergence in output dominance of the properties typically associated with each concept in the pair (that is, funny responses frequently highlighted a property high in output dominance for one concept but simultaneously low in output dominance for the other concept); by contrast, responses judged not funny did not show this pattern. These findings reinforce the centrality of incongruity resolution as a key cognitive ingredient for some pleasurable emotional elements arising from humour and demonstrate how it may operate within the context of humour generation. (shrink)

This article has been designed in the context of the religious education needs of parents with orthopedically disabled children and their views on the content and method of this religious education. The aim of the study is to reveal the religious education needs of parents with orthopedically disabled children and their views on the content and method of religious education from a descriptive point of view. In this study, one of the qualitative research methods case study was preferred. The study (...) group consists of 20 parents determined by the maximum diversity sampling, one of the purposive sampling methods. The data were analyzed by coding according to the themes and titles determined in the context of the problematic of the study with the descriptive analysis method. As a result of the study, it was determined that parents need religious education based on the opinions of the parents. Parents suggested that the content of religious education for them could be in the form of the convenience in which religion provides for the disabled, the place of disability in religion, the test and the contribution of belief in the hereafter to the disabled. Parents think that it would be beneficial to provide them with religious education by preparing books and brochures on disability and by organizing religious education programs at home and in rehabilitation center. (shrink)

This study presents a comparative investigation of ethical perceptions of the faculty members, working in selected departments of Turkish universities. A descriptive research design is used in order to reveal the perceptions regarding the ethical dilemmas related to instruction, research, and outside employment activities in both 2003 and 2008. The set of activities that are considered unethical by faculty members, as well as the occurrence of potential ethical dilemmas are identified on a comparative basis. According to the findings of the (...) study, the investigated faculty members believe that there is an increase in the occurrence of unethical instruction, research and outside employment activities in the academia. (shrink)

Die Suche nach einem angemessenen Umgang mit Moral und ihrem rhetorisch-strategischen Einsatz in Diskursen führt unweigerlich zu der Frage, welche Perspektiven verschiedene Wissenschaftsdisziplinen aufmachen, wenn sie sich mit Moral und Moralisierung beschäftigen. Mit der Erörterung verschiedener Disziplinenzugänge ist auch das Spannungsverhältnis zwischen einem deskriptiven Erörterungsansatz und Aspekten der Bewertung inklusive der ihr zugrundeliegenden Werte angesprochen. Die Beiträge des Bandes geben auf diese Fragen keine abschließenden Antworten. Sie beginnen allerdings damit, ein multi- und interdisziplinäres Bild von Moralisierung zu zeichnen, das geschichts- (...) und politikwissenschaftliche, linguistische, philosophische und theologische Sichtweisen einbezieht und miteinander ins Gespräch bringt. Das komplementäre Bild ist einerseits gekennzeichnet durch die kritische Auseinandersetzung mit Moralisierung als einer rhetorischen Strategie, der ein nicht unbeträchtliches diskursprägendes und sogar -schädigendes Potenzial innewohnt. Andererseits sperrt es sich gegen eine grundsätzliche Moralisierungsskepsis und weist stattdessen darauf hin, dass gesellschaftliche Debatten sich notwendigerweise zwischen Moralisierung und Entmoralisierung bewegen. (shrink)

Şüphesiz düşünce dünyasına adım atma cesaretini gösteren insanı meşgul eden sorulardan biri de kendisinin nasıl bir varlık olduğudur. Varlığını keşfetme sürecinde felsefe, antropoloji, psikoloji ve biyoloji gibi bilimlerin insana ilişkin ortaya koymuş oldukları anlayışlar yol gösterici olsa da insanın özünü keşfetme noktasında yetersiz gelebilir. Zira gelişen ve değişen bir varlık olarak insan yaşadığı toplum, kültür ve tarihsel arka planından tecrit edilerek bir tanıma hapsedilmesi varlığının keşfedilmesi yönündeki en büyük engeldir. Benzer bir düşünceden hareketle Heidegger insanın özünü animal rationale olarak belirleyen (...) metafiziksel anlayışı insanın aslına ulaşamadığı gerekçesiyle eleştirmektedir. Hatta Heidegger’e göre bu anlayışla insan özünü kavrayamadığı gibi kendi özünden de uzaklaşmıştır. Modern öznenin temellerini atan bu anlayış insanın her şeyi nesneleştirmesi ve kendisini yeryüzünün efendisi gibi görmesine neden olmuştur. Oysa gerçekte insanın göz kamaştıran gücünün sınırsız genişlemesine aracılık eden teknoloji Heidegger’e göre büyük bir tehlikedir. Çünkü insan kendisini her şeye hâkim olarak tecrübe ettikçe teknolojinin egemenliği altına girdiğini fark etmeksizin özünden uzaklaşıp kaynağa dönüşmektedir. Buradan hareketle Heidegger Hölderlin’in “Ama tehlikenin olduğu yerde, kurtarıcı da büyür” dizesi ile teknolojinin en büyük tehlikenin kaynağı düşünme ve şiirin ise kurtarıcı olduğunu ifade eder. Ancak teknolojinin tehlike olarak mı kalacağı yoksa yerini kurtarıcıya mı bırakacağı insanın teknoloji ile kuracağı ilişkiye bağlıdır. (shrink)

Societies are composed of groups that interact. Symbiotic groups are those in which agents complement each other in resources that they have in excess. Symbiotic groups are useful especially when the resources in an environment are distributed unevenly, because they enable agents to trade resources easily. However, for trading to happen successfully, agents in symbiotic groups need to cooperate, i.e., they should be willing to donate resources when appropriate. Similarly, if some agents in a symbiotic group are defectors, they should (...) be identified by others and eliminated from the group for the well-being of the remaining agents. Accordingly, we first study Edmonds’ tag-based model of symbiotic groups to understand the lifespan of symbiotic groups (e.g., why some groups live shorter than others). Then, we enhance Edmonds’ model by adding the capability of reciprocal interactions to agents, thus achieving a hybrid model. We capture reciprocity in three different models and study their effects on the elimination of defectors in symbiotic groups. Our experimental results show that the groups that are built with the proposed hybrid model can eliminate more defectors and earlier than tag-based models. Further, the hybrid approach can generate symbiotic groups more effectively and efficiently. (shrink)

Are idioms stored in memory in ways that preserve their surface form or language or are they represented amodally? We examined this question using an inci- dental cued recall paradigm in which two word idiomatic expressions were presented to adult bilinguals proficient in Russian and English. Stimuli included phrases with idiomat- ic equivalents in both languages (e.g. “empty words/пycтыe cлoвa”) or in one language only (English—e.g. “empty suit/пycтoй кocтюм” or Russian—e.g. “empty sound/пycтoй звyк”), or in neither language (e.g. “empty rain/пycтoй (...) дoждь”). If idioms are stored in a language-specific format, then phrases with idiomatic equivalents in both languages would have dual representation, and should therefore be more easily recalled than phrases with idiomatic meaning in only one language. This result was obtained. As such, the findings support the dual-coding theory of memory and are also compatible with models of the bilingual lexicon that include language tags or nodes. (shrink)

This study compares the ethical decision-making processes of Turkish, Thai, and American businesspeople, considering perceived moral intensity (PMI), corporate ethical values (CEV), and perceived importance of ethics (PIE). PMI describes the ethical decision making at the individual level, CEV assesses the influences of the organization’s ethical culture on the decisions of the individual, and PIE reveals what the businesspeople believe about the relationships among business, ethics, and long-run profitability. The survey respondents are professional marketers and businesspeople currently enrolled in or (...) graduated from MBA programs in Turkey (n = 416), Thailand (n = 605), and US (n = 446). The ANOVA results reveal that American businesspeople are more likely to perceive the unethical marketing behaviors as more serious than their counterparts in Turkey and Thailand. American and Turkish organizations are found to have higher CEV than Thai organizations. On the other hand, Thai and American businesspeople perceived ethics to be more important for business success than Turkish businesspeople. The understanding of the differences and similarities in ethical perceptions of the businesspeople from various countries is valuable for a successful and harmonious working together when engaging in global marketing activities. This study is thus believed to be useful for people who plan to invest or manage businesses in these countries, and many of the implications are thought to be valuable in international business arena. (shrink)

This study presents an empirical investigation of the ethical perceptions of the future managers - Turkish university students majoring in the Business Administration and Industrial Engineering departments of selected public and private Turkish universities - with a special emphasis on gender. The perceptions of the university students pertaining to the business world, the behaviors of employees, and the factors leading to unethical behavior are analyzed. The statistically significant differences reveal that female students have more ethical perceptions about the Turkish business (...) climate, behavior of employees, and the ethicalness of the behavior of the employees in comparison with their male counterparts. (shrink)

There is increasing criticism on the use of big data and algorithms in public governance. Studies revealed that algorithms may reinforce existing biases and defy scrutiny by public officials using them and citizens subject to algorithmic decisions and services. In response, scholars have called for more algorithmic transparency and regulation. These are useful, but ex post solutions in which the development of algorithms remains a rather autonomous process. This paper argues that co-design of algorithms with relevant stakeholders from government and (...) society is another means to achieve responsible and accountable algorithms that is largely overlooked in the literature. We present a case study of the development of an algorithmic tool to estimate the populations of refugee camps to manage the delivery of emergency supplies. This case study demonstrates how in different stages of development of the tool—data selection and pre-processing, training of the algorithm and post-processing and adoption—inclusion of knowledge from the field led to changes to the algorithm. Co-design supported responsibility of the algorithm in the selection of big data sources and in preventing reinforcement of biases. It contributed to accountability of the algorithm by making the estimations transparent and explicable to its users. They were able to use the tool for fitting purposes and used their discretion in the interpretation of the results. It is yet unclear whether this eventually led to better servicing of refugee camps. (shrink)

The goals of this study are to test a pattern of ethical decision making that predicts ethical intentions of individuals within corporations based primarily on the ethical values embedded in corporate culture, and to see whether that model is generally stable across countries. The survey instrument used scales to measure the effects of corporate ethical values, idealism, and relativism on ethical intentions of Turkish, Thai, and American businesspeople. The samples include practitioner members of the American Marketing Association in the U.S., (...) and full-time businesspeople enrolled in executive MBA programs in Thailand and Turkey. The study is positioned within a fairly new stream that assesses patterns across countries, rather than differences between them, in a way that might be called “culture free.” The results show a generally positive influence between cultural ethical values and ethical intentions. The results also indicate that the positive effect of corporate ethical values on ethical intentions is greater for managers with low idealism and high relativism. We also discuss the implications of our results for managers of international businesses. (shrink)

Intellectual Networks in Tīmūrid Iran: Sharaf al-Dīn ʿAlī Yazdī and the Islamicate Republic of Letters By Binbaşİlker Evrim, xviii + 340 pp. Price PB £29.99. EAN 978–1107689336.