A number of theistic philosophers have recently denied that God is subject to moral and rational norms. At the same time, many theists employ epistemological and inductive arguments for the existence of God. I will argue that ‘no-norms’ theists cannot make use of such arguments: if God is not subject to norms – particularly rational norms – then we can say nothing substantive about what kind of worlds God would be likely to create, and as such, we cannot predict the (...) likelihood of any particular evidence given theism. What is more, I argue that this lack of constraint on God's creative act raises a serious sceptical challenge for no-norms theism. (shrink)

Festschrift for Maḍiniyavela Śrī Mēdhaṅkara, Sri Lankan Buddhist monk; contributed articles chiefly on economic and ethical aspects of Buddhism.

Background: Attention to ethical leadership in nursing has diminished over the past several decades. Objectives: The aim of our study was to investigate how frontline nurses and formal nurse leaders envision ethical nursing leadership. Research design: Meta-ethnography was used to guide our analysis and synthesis of four studies that explored the notion of ethical nursing leadership. Participants and research context: These four original studies were conducted from 1999-2008 in Canada with 601 participants. Ethical considerations: Ethical approval from the original studies (...) covered future analysis. Findings: Using the analytic strategy of lines-of-argument, we found that 1) ethical nursing leadership must be responsive to practitioners and to the contextual system in which they and formal nurse leaders work, and 2) ethical nursing leadership requires receiving and providing support to increase the capacity to practice and discuss ethics in the day-to-day. Discussion and conclusion: Formal nurse leaders play a critical, yet often neglected role, in providing ethical leadership and supporting ethical nursing practice at the point of patient care. (shrink)

Scholars have characterised the trial of the life of pleasure in Philebus 20b-21d as digressive or pejorative. I argue that it is neither: it is a thought experiment containing an important argument, in the form of a reductio, of the hypothesis that a life could be most pleasant without cognition. It proceeds in a series of steps, culminating in the precisely chosen image of the jellyfish. Understanding the intended resonance of this creature, and the sense in which it is deprived, (...) is critical for reconstructing the argument, and yields new insight into Plato’s views on the minimal conditions for pleasure. (shrink)

Plagiarism is often equated with theft, but closer inspection reveals plagiarism’s distinctive dimensions. Fundamentally, plagiarism is a form of deception, whereby the plagiarist uses the instructor as a means toward the plagiarist’s own end. Implicitly asking the instructor for a fair and accurate evaluation of the student’s abilities, the plagiarist at the same time sabotages the instructor’s capacity to make that judgment, thereby violating a duty inherent in the student-teacher relationship. Moreover, every act of plagiarism damages the plagiarist’s integrity, thereby (...) subverting his/her own well-being, while contributing as well to a widespread devaluing of education for both the individual and society. (shrink)

The book argues that the category of mother is distinct from the category of woman and that many of the problems mothers face-socially, economically, politically, culturally, and psychologically-are specific to women's work and identity as mothers. Indeed, mothers, arguably more so than women in general, remain disempowered despite forty years of feminism. Mothers, thus, need a feminism of their own, one that positions mothers' concerns as the starting point for a theory and politic of empowerment. O'Reilly terms this new (...) mode of feminism matricentic feminism and the book explores how it is represented and experienced in theory, activism, and practice. The chapter on maternal theory examines the central theoretical concepts of maternal scholarship to include Adrienne Rich's distinction between mothering and motherhood, Sara Ruddick's model of maternal thinking and practice and Patricia Hill Collins' concept of othermothering while the chapter on activism considers the 21st century motherhood movement. Feminist mothering is likewise examined as the specific practice of matricentric feminism and this chapter discusses varies theories and strategies on and for maternal empowerment. Matricentric feminism is also examined in relation to the larger field of Feminist Theory and Women's Studies; here O'Reilly persuasively shows how matricentric feminism has been marginalized in feminist scholarship and considers the reasons for such exclusion and how such may be challenged and changed. (shrink)

Reilly offers an account of cosmopolitan feminism as emancipatory political practice in an age of globalization. This entails a critical engagement with international human rights law; a global feminist consciousness that contests patriarchal, capitalist, and racist power dynamics in a context of neoliberal globalization; cross-boundaries dialogue that recognizes the intersectionality of forms of oppression; collaborative transnational strategizing on concrete issues; and the utilization of global forums as sites of cosmopolitan solidarity and citizen action.

This paper introduces the state space theory of consciousness, positing that the cortex processes information through delay coordinate embedding operationalized by recurrent neural network engines. This leverages the power of Takens' theorem, giving rise to representations of reality as points within state space. Consciousness is posited to arise at the highest order engines amongst hierarchical and parallel engine pathways. Consciousness is cast as a dynamic process rather than as a neuronal state, reconciling dualist intuitions with a monist perspective. Neuronal representations (...) develop uniquely in each individual due to history-dependent training of these engines, accounting for the privacy of qualia while also addressing cortical plasticity and the heuristic nature of cortical processing. Posited engines exhibit non-linear dynamics that are sensitive to initial conditions, explaining phenomena such as ambiguous figure interpretation and offering a pathway to explaining free will. The state space theory aligns with and expands upon major theories (e.g.higher-order theories, global workspace theories, integrated information theory), essentially providing a computational mechanism that unifies elements of these theories. Future work will explore neural mechanisms and validate predictions. (shrink)

Classical work on Jain philosophy; includes a Hindi supercommentary by Jayasundaravijaya.

The complex and dynamic nature of systems pose a particular challenge to researchers and require the use of a research methodology designed to deal with such systems. The properties of fit, relevance, understandability, generality, control, workability, generalizability, and modifiability make Glaserian grounded theory and grounded action particularly well suited for studying systems. These methods are innovative, systemic, and sophisticated enough to reveal the underlying complexities of systems and plan actions that address their complex, dynamic nature while remaining grounded in what (...) is occurring within the systems as they change over time. (shrink)

The relations of comparison and contrast among the viewpoints of characters and between the viewpoints of authors and characters is one of the most important dimensions of meaning in literary texts.... It is for this reason that the analysis of irony, as a central tonal medium for registering differences in point of view, occupies a position of singular importance in the interpretation of literary meaning.Irony stings. Among friends it might be playful, its target joining in the fun. But it is (...) hard to see irony figuring into any how-to guide for making friends in the first place. Indeed, the word is absent from Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People. More often irony is divisive, driving a wedge... (shrink)

The metaverse is equivocal. It is a science-fictional concept from the past; it is the present’s rough implementations; and it is the Promised Cyberland, expected to manifest some time in the future. The metaverse first emerged as a techno-capitalist network in a 1992 science fiction novel by Neal Stephenson. Our article thus marks the metaverse’s thirtieth anniversary. We revisit Stephenson’s original concept plus three sophisticated antecedents from 1972 to 1984: Jean Baudrillard’s simulation, Sherry Turkle’s networked identities, and Jacques Lacan’s schema (...) of suggestible consumers hooked up to a Matrix-like capitalist network. We gauge the relevance of these three antecedents following Meta’s recent promise to deliver a metaverse for the mainstream and the emergence of blockchain-oriented metaverse projects. We examine empirical data from 2021 and 2022, sourced from journalistic and social media (BuzzSumo, Google Trends, Reddit, and Twitter) as well as the United States Patent and Trademark Office. This latest chapter of the metaverse’s convoluted history reveals a focus not on virtual reality goggles but rather on techno-capitalist notions like digital wallets, crypto-assets, and targeted advertisements. The metaverse’s wallet-holders collect status symbols like limited-edition profile pictures, fashion items for avatars, tradable pets and companions, and real estate. Motivated by the metaverse’s sophisticated antecedents and our empirical findings, we propose a subtle conceptual re-orientation that respects the metaverse’s equivocal nature and rejects sanitised solutionism. Do not let the phantasmagorical goggles distract you too much: Big Meta is watching you, and it expects you to become a wallet-holder. Blockchain proponents want this as well. (shrink)

The pessimistic conclusion that people have relatively poor insight into the weighting schemes they use when they make holistic judgements has been generally accepted among judgement researchers. The empirical research that supported this generalisation rested on indices of self-insight that were produced directly by the subjects. It was often the case that subjects were unable to correctly name even the single most important factor influencing their decisions, as indicated by a mathematical model of their judgement schemes. Using an alternate method (...) of assessing self-insight, however, Reilly and Doherty found that subjects have far better self-insight than previously believed possible. The present paper employed the same methodology to investigate insight into the policy of another person as well as into oneself, and examined the relation of self-insight and other-insight to interpersonal conflict. Subjects were 50 dyads of university students. The results showed that: subjects exhibited the expected high levels of self-insight via the recognition procedure; subjects were able to identify the statistically generated policy of their roommate, thus exhibiting other-insight; the ability to identify one's own policy is somewhat related to the ability to articulate one's own policy that is, roommates with insight via recognition had higher indices of self-insight as measured by the traditional correlation method; subjects who were able to identify their own policy were more likely to identify their roommate's policy and individuals who possess self- and other-insight had less conflict in their roommate relationships. (shrink)

The term “principle of sufficient reason” (PSR) was coined by Leibniz, and he is often regarded as its paradigmatic proponent. But as Leibniz himself often insisted, he was by no means the first philosopher to appeal to the idea that everything must have a reason. Histories of the principle attribute versions of it to various ancient authors. A few of these studies include—or at least do not exclude—medieval philosophers; one finds the PSR in Abelard, another finds it in Aquinas. And (...) while Leibniz retains pride of place in these histories, Spinoza is sometimes said to precede him “in appreciating the importance of the Principle and placing it at the center of his philosophical system.” In this paper, the author argues that the same should be said of the Islamic philosopher Avicenna. Writing 600 years before his early modern counterparts, Avicenna routinely and consistently appeals to the PSR in generating his metaphysical system. The paper aims first to establish that Avicenna deserves a position of prominence in histories of the PSR, and then to consider how he addresses certain challenges to the PSR, especially the threat posed by necessitarianism. (shrink)

Śaṅkarācārya's commentary with supercommentary on Catuḥsūtra of Brahmasūtra.

Ethics of Compassion places central themes from Buddhist and Christian moral teachings within the conceptual framework of Western normative ethics. What results is a viable alternative ethical theory to those offered by utilitarians, Kantian formalists, proponents of the natural law tradition, and advocates of virtue ethics. Ethics of Compassion bridges Eastern and Western cultures, philosophical ethics and religious moral discourse, and notions of acting rightly and of being virtuous.

Among the distinguished contributors to the series are fellows of the Institute, past and present, Leonard E. Boyle, Jocelyn Hillgarth, Edouard Jeauneau, James K. McConica, M. Michèle Mulchahey, Joseph Owens, Walter H. Principe, James P. ...

This article deals with the prospect of genetically enhancing intelligence. We identify and contrast social attitudes (disapproval) to the use of future genetic technology with social attitudes (approval) for environmental methods of enhancing intelligence. Using various forms of the argument that the means by which enhancement is achieved has moral significance, we look for differences that could justify the different attitudes. We find that the different attitudes cannot be ethically justified. We predict that the lack of ethical justification for distinguishing (...) between means of enhancement is likely to result in the eventual acceptance of genetic enhancement of intelligence. (shrink)

There is increasing emphasis on the need for collaboration between practice and academic leaders in health care research. However, many problems can arise owing to differences between academic and clinical goals and timelines. In order for research to move forward it is important to name and address these issues early in a project. In this article we use an example of a participatory action research study of ethical practice in nursing to highlight some of the issues that are not frequently (...) discussed and we identify the impact of things not-named. Further, we offer our insights to others who wish to be partners in research between academic and practice settings. These findings have wide implications for ameliorating misunderstandings that may develop between nurse leaders in light of collaborative research, as well as for participatory action research. (shrink)

Collection of published and unpublished 48 works of Śaṅkarācārya.

In At the Roots of Causality, Francesco Omar Zamboni examines several doctrines related to Avicenna’s writings on existence, contingency, and causality, which generated debate in the two hundred ye...

This article appeals to Thomas Aquinas in order to offer a construal of the nature of reason arguably preferable to that prominent in the Enlightenment. Thomas’s account neither espouses the notion that reason is devoid of any appetitive influence nor so conflates reason and will as to suggest that thinking becomes essentially a form of willing. His view does respect that the activity of willing is of fundamental import for the life of reason. Since the ultimate object of the will (...) is union with God, it follows that the virtue that specifically promotes the attainment of this end—the virtue of religion—has particular import because it aims at rectifying the will and is the most excellent among the moral virtues. In brief, this virtue promotes the optimal intellectual and moral flourishing of individuals as well as the realization of justice in society. (shrink)