Divided into five parts, the book provides general background information on Biruni's time, his world, and his life. It includes the full names of the 183 books written by Biruni. The titles of these books are given in Arabic, Persian, transliteration of the Arabic title, and English, and they are all annotated and if available the number of folios is given for each one. A list of available references in English on Biruni, including articles, bibliographies, books, internet sites, a dissertation, (...) and even a film. A list of Persian reference sources is also included. (shrink)

The study contributes to building an understanding of the impact of political forces on the information environment of listed firms in a developing economy. Specifically, it investigates the tensions between politico-institutional factors and accounting regulation on the prolonged and incomplete implementation of the International Financial Reporting Standards in Bangladesh from 1998 to 2010. Two phases of interviews were conducted in 2010–2011 and IFRS-related enforcement documents from 1998 to 2010 were evaluated. The study contributes that IFRSs are being diffused to developing (...) countries like Bangladesh, but they invariably interact with local institutions, with variable outcomes. Coercive, normative and mimetic isomorphisms are low in Bangladesh. Notably, political forces have been undermining mimetic isomorphism because of the high level of government intervention and the high level of political lobbying. Political institutional pressures stand in the way of mimetic isomorphism and constitute negative forces that add further tension to accounting regulation in Bangladesh. Regarding the low level of normative isomorphism, there is evidence of a ‘blame culture’, with state institutions and professional accountancy institutions in the country blaming each other for the poor progress in IFRS implementation. Although the study focuses on Bangladesh, its results have implications for international policy makers, as well as the governments and regulators of other developing economies facing similar challenges in implementing IFRS. (shrink)

Recent business headlines, particularly those related to the collapsed energy-trading giant, Enron and its auditor, Arthur Andersen raise concerns about accountants' ethical reasoning. We propose, and provide evidence from 90 new auditors from Big-Five accounting firms, that a selection-socialization effect exists in the accounting profession that results in hiring accountants with disproportionately higher levels of the Sensing/thinking (ST) cognitive style. This finding is important and relevant because we also find that the ST cognitive style is associated with relatively low levels (...) of ethical reasoning, regardless of gender. This finding implies a need for emphasis on the ethical training of accountants. The results also suggest that accounting firms should consider recruiting accountants with cognitive styles associated with relatively higher levels of ethical reasoning. (shrink)

Background: Although human dignity is an unconditional value of every human being, it can be shattered by extrinsic factors. It is necessary to discover the authentic meaning of patients’ dignity preservation from different religious perspectives to provide professional cross-cultural care in a diverse setting. Research objective: This article identifies common experiences of Iranian Muslim and Armenian Christian patients regarding dignified care at the bedside. Research design: This is a qualitative study of participants’ experiences of dignified care elicited by individual in-depth (...) semi-structured interviews. Participants and research context: A purposeful sample of 10 participants (five Iranian Muslims and five Iranian Armenians) from various private and governmental hospital settings was chosen. Ethical considerations: This study was approved by the ethics committee of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. All the participants were provided with information about the purpose and the nature of the study, the voluntary condition of their participation in this study, and the anonymous reporting of recorded interviews. Findings: The common experiences of Christian and Muslim patients regarding dignity preservation emerged as “exigency of respecting human nobility” and “providing person-centered care.” Discussion and conclusion: It is essential to recognize the humanness and individuality of each patient to preserve and promote human dignity in diverse cross-cultural settings. The findings support and expand current understanding about the objective and subjective nature of dignity preservation in cross-cultural nursing. (shrink)

This work engages in a constructive, yet subtle, dialogue with the nuanced accounts of sensory intentionality and empirical knowledge offered by the Islamic philosopher Avicenna. -/- This discourse has two main objectives: (1) providing an interpretation of Avicenna’s epistemology that avoids reading him as a precursor to British empiricists or as a full-fledged emanatist and (2) bringing light to the importance of Avicenna’s account of experience to relevant contemporary Anglo-American discussions in epistemology and metaphysics. These two objectives are interconnected. Anglo-American (...) philosophy provides the framework for a novel reading of Avicenna on knowledge and reality, and the latter, in turn, contributes to adjusting some aspects of the former. -/- Advancing the Avicennian perspective on contemporary analytic discourse, this volume is a key resource for researchers and students interested in comparative and analytic epistemology and metaphysics as well as Islamic philosophy. (shrink)

In this article, we discuss ethical issues related to using and disclosing artificial intelligence (AI) tools, such as ChatGPT and other systems based on large language models (LLMs), to write or edit scholarly manuscripts. Some journals, such as Science, have banned the use of LLMs because of the ethical problems they raise concerning responsible authorship. We argue that this is not a reasonable response to the moral conundrums created by the use of LLMs because bans are unenforceable and would encourage (...) undisclosed use of LLMs. Furthermore, LLMs can be useful in writing, reviewing and editing text, and promote equity in science. Others have argued that LLMs should be mentioned in the acknowledgments since they do not meet all the authorship criteria. We argue that naming LLMs as authors or mentioning them in the acknowledgments are both inappropriate forms of recognition because LLMs do not have free will and therefore cannot be held morally or legally responsible for what they do. Tools in general, and software in particular, are usually cited in-text, followed by being mentioned in the references. We provide suggestions to improve APA Style for referencing ChatGPT to specifically indicate the contributor who used LLMs (because interactions are stored on personal user accounts), the used version and model (because the same version could use different language models and generate dissimilar responses, e.g., ChatGPT May 12 Version GPT3.5 or GPT4), and the time of usage (because LLMs evolve fast and generate dissimilar responses over time). We recommend that researchers who use LLMs: (1) disclose their use in the introduction or methods section to transparently describe details such as used prompts and note which parts of the text are affected, (2) use in-text citations and references (to recognize their used applications and improve findability and indexing), and (3) record and submit their relevant interactions with LLMs as supplementary material or appendices. (shrink)

A generic extension of the constructible universe by reals is defined, in which the union of ‐classes of x and y is a lightface set, but neither of these two ‐classes is separately ordinal‐definable.

Recent literature on Islam and the digital covers a wide range of topics and themes; however, what is yet to be developed from an Islamic perspective is a broader philosophical framework that accounts for the nature, exigencies and affordances of contemporary digital technologies. In advance of such a framework, this article is an attempt to open the way to philosophical engagement with issues of digital ethics from an Islamic perspective. After a brief review of recent literature on Islam and the (...) digital and a significantly earlier work by Ziauddin Sardar, in which he proposed an information strategy for the Muslim world, this paper provides some background to Islamic ethics and the wide field of ethical theories in the Islamic tradition. This paper then proceeds by identifying and outlining examples of contemporary themes in Islam and the digital which conceal underlying philosophical and theological issues. Finally, this paper considers the significant scale and scope of the transformations involved in the ongoing transposition to the ‘onlife’ and highlights several areas where Islamic perspectives may be seen to converge or diverge with other strands of scholarship on digital ethics. (shrink)

In "Intuitionistic validity in -normal Kripke structures," Buss asked whether every intuitionistic theory is, for some classical theory , that of all -normal Kripke structures for which he gave an r.e. axiomatization. In the language of arithmetic and denote PA plus Open Induction or Open LNP, and are their intuitionistic deductive closures. We show is recursively axiomatizable and , while . If proves PEM but not totality of a classically provably total Diophantine function of , then and so . A (...) result due to Wehmeier then implies . We prove is not -conservative over . If , then is not closed under MR or Friedman's translation, so range (). Both and are closed under the negative translation. (shrink)

Background: Moral distress is increasingly recognized as a problem affecting healthcare professionals, especially nurses. If not addressed, it may create job dissatisfaction, withdrawal from the moral dimensions of patient care, or even encourage one to leave the profession. Spiritual well-being is a concept which is considered when dealing with problems and stress relating to a variety of issues. Objective: This research aimed to examine the relationship between spiritual well-being and moral distress among a sample of Iranian nurses and also to (...) study the determinant factors of moral distress and spiritual well-being in nurses. Research design: A cross-sectional, correlational design was employed to collect data from 193 nurses using the Spiritual Well-Being Scale and the Moral Distress Scale-Revised. Ethical considerations: This study was approved by the Regional Committee of Medical Research Ethics. The ethical principles of voluntary participation, anonymity, and confidentiality were considered. Findings: Mean scores of spiritual well-being and moral distress were 94.73 ± 15.89 and 109.56 ± 58.70, respectively. There was no significant correlation between spiritual well-being and moral distress ( r = −.053, p =.462). Marital status and job satisfaction were found to be independent predictors of spiritual well-being. However, gender and educational levels were found to be independent predictors for moral distress. Age, working in rotation shifts, and a tendency to leave the current job also became significant after adjusting other factors for moral distress. Discussion and conclusion: This study could not support the relationship between spiritual well-being and moral distress. However, the results showed that moral distress is related to many elements including individual ideals and differences as well as organizational factors. Informing nurses about moral distress and its consequences, establishing periodic consultations, and making some organizational arrangement may play an important role in the identification and management of moral distress and spiritual well-being. (shrink)

Background: Emergency care providers are frequently faces with situations in which they have to make decisions quickly in stressful situations. They face barriers to ethical decision-making and recognizing and finding solutions to these barriers helps them to make ethical decision. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to identify barriers of ethical decision-making in Iranian Emergency Medical Service personnel. Methods: In this qualitative research, the participants (n = 15) were selected using the purposive sampling method, and the data were collected (...) by deep and semi-structured interviews. Finally, the data are analyzed using the content analysis approach. Ethical considerations: Permission to conduct the study was obtained from the Ethics Committee of the Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences. The objectives of the study were explained to the participants and written consent was received from them. Also, participants were assured that necessary measures were taken to protect their anonymity and confidentiality. Findings: The results of the analysis are classified in five main categories. It encompasses the following areas: perception of situation, patient-related factors, input and output imbalance, uncoordinated health system, and paradoxes. Conclusion: Emergency Medical Service personnel make ethical decisions every day. It is important that prehospital personnel know how to manage those decisions properly so that clients’ moral rights are respected. Hence, by identifying the dimensions and obstacles of ethical decision-making in Emergency Medical Service personnel, it is possible to enhance the moral judgment and ethical accountability of the personnel and develop the strategies necessary for ethical decision-making in them. (shrink)

This article provides the findings of a quantitative and qualitative study of participants from the prematurely cancelled Ontario Basic Income Pilot in the Hamilton region. We compare our evidence with those of other large-scale experiments from the high-income countries between 1968 and 2019 to place OBIP’s findings in the context of evidence from randomized control experiments with similar policy conditions to Ontario’s. Our study identified a small decline in labour market participation, but improvements on a variety of quality-of-life measurements. We (...) hypothesize that OBIPs comparatively positive results on general well-being can be attributed to its: i) generous benefit rates relative to social assistance rates; ii) 50 percent take back rate; and iii) unconditionality; iv) broad well-being/welfare design. (shrink)

The intuition that we can think about non-existent objects seems to be in tension with philosophical concerns about the relationality of intentionality. Tim Crane’s psychologism removes this tension by proposing a psychologistic account of intentionality according to which intentionality is a purely non-relational notion. I argue that his account has counterintuitive consequences regarding our thoughts about existing objects, and as such is insufficiently plausible to convince us to reject the relationality of intentionality.

This study provides evidence regarding the level of ethical cognition of business students at the entry to college as compared to a national norm. It also provides comparative evidence on the effects of group versus individual ethical cognition upon completion of a business ethics course. The Principled Score (P-score) from the Defining Issues Test (DIT) was used to measure the ethical cognition of a total sample of 301 business students (273 entering students plus 28 students in a business ethics course). (...) The results indicate that (1) business students are not significantly different from the national norms at entry to college and (2) group reasoning helps male students improve their P-scores significantly in the business ethics course at a loss of P-score (albeit not statistically significant) for female students. (shrink)

W.L. Craig has argued that the universe has a beginning because (1) the infinitude of the past entails the existence of actual infinite multitudes of past intervals of time, and (2) the existence of actual infinite multitudes is impossible. Puryear has rejected (1) and argued that what the infinitude of the past entails is only the existence of an actual infinite magnitude of past time. But this does not preclude the infinitude of the past, Puryear claims, because there can be (...) no justification for the claim that actual infinite magnitudes are impossible. I argue, against Puryear, that there can be such a justification. I claim, nevertheless, that, for reasons entirely different from Puryear’s, the finitude of the past cannot be established based either on the impossibility of actual infinite multitudes or on the impossibility of actual infinite magnitudes. My arguments in this paper draw on insights from al-Kindī and Avicenna. (shrink)

A model called the “semiotic ladder,” which consists of “consecutive semiotic squares,” is proposed in this paper, through which the meanings of the deep structure of a narrative can be depicted as fluid and dynamic. It shows the stages of producing meanings in the narrative, from beginning to end. To see this, several narratives in the epic and mythological genres are analyzed in order to discover their abstract and deep structural meanings, and to prove the dynamic nature of meaning in (...) the semiotic ladder. According to the analysis, the process of the semiotic ladder depicts the displacement and fluidity of narrative meanings using consecutive semiotic squares, and this pattern can be applied to and implemented in all narratives. Also, the semiotic ladder allows us to clearly observe the pattern of movement of the narrative subject schema in the path of accomplishing the object. (shrink)

We prove that every infinite rooted narrow tree Kripke model of HA is locally PA.

After the advent of the theory of special relativity, the existence of absolute time in nature was rejected within the society of physics. In recent decades, William Lane Craig has endeavoured to offer an interpretation of the empirical evidence that support the theory of relativity while maintaining the concept of absolute time. His interpretation, however, is based upon supernatural presuppositions due to which it cannot be accepted as a scientific argument. After explaining Craig’s view, we attempt to reconstruct his explanation (...) for absolute time using the concept of general substantial motion of nature, well-known in Mulla Sadra’s philosophy as the most important approach in Islamic philosophy; thereby, proving general time for the natural world. Although Craig considers some evidence from modern physics in his reasoning for absolute time, here, after pointing to some evidence, it is discussed that the approach used here better bridges the gap that exists between the metaphysics and the physics of the argument. (shrink)

The article at hand presents the results of a literature review on the ethical issues related to scientific authorship. These issues are understood as questions and/or concerns about obligations, values or virtues in relation to reporting, authorship and publication of research results. For this purpose, the Web of Science core collection was searched for English resources published between 1945 and 2018, and a total of 324 items were analyzed. Based on the review of the documents, ten ethical themes have been (...) identified, some of which entail several ethical issues. Ranked on the basis of their frequency of occurrence these themes are: 1) attribution, 2) violations of the norms of authorship, 3) bias, 4) responsibility and accountability, 5) authorship order, 6) citations and referencing, 7) definition of authorship, 8) publication strategy, 9) originality, and 10) sanctions. In mapping these themes, the current article explores major ethical issue and provides a critical discussion about the application of codes of conduct, various understandings of culture, and contributing factors to unethical behavior. (shrink)

We show that if [Formula: see text] then any nontrivial [Formula: see text]-closed forcing notion of size [Formula: see text] is forcing equivalent to [Formula: see text] the Cohen forcing for adding a new Cohen subset of [Formula: see text] We also produce, relative to the existence of suitable large cardinals, a model of [Formula: see text] in which [Formula: see text] and all [Formula: see text]-closed forcing notion of size [Formula: see text] collapse [Formula: see text] and hence are (...) forcing equivalent to [Formula: see text] These results answer a question of Scott Williams from 1978. We also extend a result of Todorcevic and Foreman–Magidor–Shelah by showing that it is consistent that every partial order which adds a new subset of [Formula: see text] collapses [Formula: see text] or [Formula: see text]. (shrink)

In the medieval Bengal, Hindus and Muslims lived in a society where mainly the religion controlled foremost aspects of life. In this context, both the communities maintained two distinct educational systems in Bengal. This paper attempts to present the emergence of Islamic education in Bengal during Sultanate period and its development in relation to the indigenous education of the Hindus. It also examines interactions of Islamic education with its Hindu counterpart from Sultani to Nawabi period despite having clear distinctions across (...) the communities in many respects. Analyzing the primary and secondary sources on education of Medieval Bengal, this paper shows how in a religiously polarized society, the Hindus and Muslims interacted in the field of education going beyond the existing hostility, mistrust and prejudices in many aspects of their distinctive life styles. Philosophy and Progress, Vol#73-74; No#1-2; Jan-Dec 2023 P 37-57. (shrink)

Decision-makers in governments, enterprises, businesses and agencies or individuals, typically, make decisions according to various regulations, guidelines and policies based on existing records stored in various databases, in particular, relational databases. To assist decision-makers, an expert system, encompasses interactive computer-based systems or subsystems to support the decision-making process. Typically, most expert systems are built on top of transaction systems, databases, and data models and restricted in decision-making to the analysis, processing and presenting data and information, and they do not provide (...) support for the normative layer. This paper will provide a solution to one specific problem that arises from this situation, namely the lack of tool/mechanism to demonstrate how an expert system is well-suited for supporting decision-making activities drawn from existing records and relevant legal requirements aligned existing records stored in various databases.We present a Rule-based reporting systems architecture, which is intended to integrate databases, in particular, relational databases, with a logic-based reasoner and rule engine to assist in decision-making or create reports according to legal norms. We argue that the resulting RuleRS provides an efficient and flexible solution to the problem at hand using defeasible inference. To this end, we have also conducted empirical evaluations of RuleRS performance. (shrink)

In this paper, we aim to discuss the fake journals and their advertisement and publication techniques. These types of journals mostly start and continue their activities by using the name of some indexed journals and establishing fake websites. The fake journals and publishers, while asking the authors for a significant amount of money for publishing their papers, have no peer-review process, publish the papers without any revision on the fake sites, and put the scientific reputation and prestige of the researchers (...) in jeopardy. In the rest of the paper, we present some viable techniques in order for researchers and students to identify these journals. (shrink)

Business Ethics: A European Review, EarlyView.

This article explores the impact of an Increase in the average Number of Authors per Publication on known ethical issues of authorship. For this purpose, the ten most common ethical issues associated with scholarly authorship are used to set up a taxonomy of existing issues and raise awareness among the community to take precautionary measures and adopt best practices to minimize the negative impact of INAP. We confirm that intense international, interdisciplinary and complex collaborations are necessary, and INAP is an (...) expression of this trend. However, perverse incentives aimed to increase institutional and personal publication counts and egregious instances of guest or honorary authorship are problematic. We argue that whether INAP is due to increased complexity and scale of science, perverse incentives or undeserved authorship, it could negatively affect known ethical issues of authorship at some level. In the long run, INAP depreciates the value of authorship status and may disproportionately impact junior researchers and those who contribute to technical and routine tasks. We provide two suggestions that could reduce the long-term impact of INAP on the reward system of science. First, we suggest further refinement of the CRediT taxonomy including better integration into current systems of attribution and acknowledgement, and better harmony with major authorship guidelines such as those suggested by the ICMJE. Second, we propose adjustments to the academic recognition and promotion systems at an institutional level as well as the introduction of best practices. (shrink)

RésuméSelon Avicenne, certains objets des mathématiques existent et d'autres non. Chaque objet mathématique existant est un attribut connotationnel non sensible d'un objet physique et peut être perçu par la faculté d'estimation. Les objets mathématiques non existants peuvent être représentés et perçus par la faculté d'imagination en séparant et en combinant des parties d'images d'objets mathématiques existants qui sont précédemment perçues par estimation. Dans tous les cas, même les objets mathématiques non existants doivent être considérés comme des propriétés d'entités matérielles. Ils (...) ne peuvent jamais être saisis comme des entités totalement immatérielles. Avicenne pense que nous ne pouvons saisir aucun concept mathématique à moins d'avoir au préalable des expériences perceptives spécifiques. Ce n'est que par l'opération non éliminable et irremplaçable des facultés d'estimation et d'imagination sur certaines données sensibles que nous pouvons saisir les concepts mathématiques. Cela montre qu'Avicenne approuve une sorte d'empirisme conceptuel sur les mathématiques. (shrink)

Undoubtedly, environmental damage is one of the most important challenges facing contemporary human beings. This is important because the signs that threaten this damage have now become apparent, threatening humans with widespread environmental pollution. On the other hand, humanity will not be able to live a normal life without a safe and healthy environment. Therefore, preservation and protection of the environment, as the most important basic needs of survival, are considered by everyone, including researchers. As a consequence, various studies aim (...) to identify the factors that play a role in how humans and the environment interact. To this end, the present study considered the comprehensiveness of Islam and paid attention to all human needs, and intended to examine the role of religious beliefs on how to interact with the environment. It is worth mentioning that the statistical population of this study comprised 387 Iranian Muslim students from different universities in Iran. After the distribution of standardised research questionnaires whose validity and reliability was confirmed, the collected data were analysed by statistical software. Finally, the results concluded the following: The investigated statistical population pledged and bonded to religious instructions, the investigated statistical population had an appropriate interaction with the environment and the obligation and pledge to religious beliefs had a positive and significant role in people interacting with the environment so that people with strong religious beliefs had a more appropriate interaction with the environment, in opposition to people with less religious beliefs whose interaction with the environment was not apt.Contribution: This research provides further insight into the relations between Theology, religious beliefs and the interaction of people with the environment. (shrink)

The human in continuous century envisage the skepticism. When the human envisage the deficiency of his knowledge, will be in trouble of skepticism, when the knowledge of human fundamentally is doubted, all internal or external impressions will be doubted, so the man envisage the unlimited skepticism. But is it possible and logical? The possibility of it is a psychological question too, but my effort is the epistemological surveying of it. We can survey this question in two ways. One way is (...) justifier reasons of skepticism. Are there sufficient for unlimited skepticism? Every deduction is based on preludes and if they’re uncertain the result will be uncertain too. There any deduction can’t justify unlimited skepticism. The other way is the surveying results of this skepticism. We have beliefs thatnever can doubt them like our existence. This inability express that the unlimited skepticism doesn’t agree the logic of our subject. Moreover the unlimited skepticism brings the mixed continuums. If we doubt anything, doubt this doubting too and this involving haven’t extremity, the demoniac hang that can’t be accepted by our. (shrink)

We present an axiomatization for Basic Propositional Calculus BPC and give a completeness theorem for the class of transitive Kripke structures. We present several refinements, including a completeness theorem for irreflexive trees. The class of intermediate logics includes two maximal nodes, one being Classical Propositional Calculus CPC, the other being E1, a theory axiomatized by T → ⊥. The intersection CPC ∩ E1 is axiomatizable by the Principle of the Excluded Middle A V ∨ ⌝A. If B is a formula (...) such that → B is not derivable, then the lattice of formulas built from one propositional variable p using only the binary connectives, is isomorphically preserved if B is substituted for p. A formula → B is derivable exactly when B is provably equivalent to a formula of the form → A) →. (shrink)

INTRODUCTION: BUILDING DEMOCRATIC STATES ON NATIONAL DIVERSITY Mohammad-Saïd Darviche & William Genieys Juan J. Linz is one of the most famous scholars in ...

Based on a decade of direct diplomatic engagement with the United Nations, a decade of teaching on international relations, and another decade of research and teaching on Islamic and comparative peace studies, this book offers a friendship-related academic framework that examines shared moral concepts, philosophical paradigms and political experiences that can help developing and expanding multi-disciplinary conversations between the Christian West and the Muslim East. By advancing multicultural and inter-religious discourses on friendship, this book helps promoting actual friendships among diverse (...) cultures and peoples. This book has no published parallels, so far, in the current century. Most important, it is not a monologue. Rather, it provides a model of conversations among scholars and political actors who come from diverse international and inter-religious backgrounds. The word "Islamic" should not mislead the reader to suspect that this edited volume delves only into religious discourses. On the contrary, it provides a forum for conversations both within and between religious as well as philosophical perspectives. In short, the book is a forum for friendship conversations both thematically and also in terms of disciplinary and cultural diversity. This volume presents a model for intellectual conversations about friendship. The result of the work of many prominent international scholars and diplomats over many years, it conveys at least one message clearly: friendship matters for not only our happiness but also for our survival. (shrink)

The issue of relativism has recently become a vital concern in sociology and politics, along with globalization. This book studies ethical relativism in its most profound and recent forms, and argues that a non-relativist account of morality is capable of validating our moral experiences without undesirable implications. Ethical Relativism brings a fresh-perspective to the on-going debate on post-modernism and relativism, and should be of interest to all who study philosophy, theology, and cultural studies, and those interested in spirituality.

Let ℒ and ? be propositional languages over Basic Propositional Calculus, and ℳ = ℒ∩?. Weprove two different but interrelated interpolation theorems. First, suppose that Π is a sequent theory over ℒ, and Σ∪ {C⇒C′} is a set of sequents over ?, such that Π,Σ⊢C⇒C′. Then there is a sequent theory Φ over ℳ such that Π⊢Φ and Φ, Σ⊢C⇒C′. Second, let A be a formula over ℒ, and C 1, C 2 be formulas over ?, such that A∧C 1⊢C (...) 2. Then there exists a formula B over ℳ such that A⊢B and B∧C 1⊢C 2. (shrink)

The detection of a human’s intended behavior is one of the most important skills that a social robot should have in order to become acceptable as a part of human society, because humans are used to understand the actions of other humans in a goal-directed manner and they will expect the social robot to behave similarly. A breakthrough in this area can advance several research branches related to social intelligence such as learning by imitation and mutual adaptation. To achieve this (...) goal the robot needs to integrate all possible evidence of intention and neglect the unintended behavior, and a complete solution should use low-level signal processing and high-level reasoning. This work explores the low-level signal processing part of the solution by proposing an interactive adaptive perception scheme that uses four important features of human behavior to amplify the signals originating from intended behavior with respect to signals originating from unintended behavior and other noise sources such as instrumental noise. This work follows the vision that intelligence is not only a function of a centralized sophisticated artificial brain, but can be presented in different forms in the entire robot including its perception and motion systems (the mind is not contained in the brain, but distributed in every cell in the body). A simple example of using the proposed scheme was implemented and the results of two experiments with it are also presented. (shrink)

The world can be divided between atheism and theism, a division that also fuels its social conflicts, moral outlook, and social evolution. If not for the question of why God did not create everything in peace, harmony, and reconciliation, we might not have seen this division. Atheism thrives and lives on the consideration of a merciful God allowing suffering, hardship, and punishment while theism on the belief in divine tests practiced through higher values. However, the arguments for theism and atheism (...) are still ongoing while affecting humanity at large. Even though theism is not as strong globally as it was at some time in the past, it still has a considerable influence in many major areas of the world. Islamic theism is a major influence driving the politics and addressing social conflicts in the Middle East and many other parts of the world. This discussion analyses both Islamic theism and atheism comparatively arguing for Islamic theism and against atheism. As atheism has no authoritative sources like Islamic theism has in the Quran and Hadith the atheistic perspectives are largely dependent upon its leading proponents and history. The discussion finds atheism is great for those who have wealth, resources, and influence while theism is best suited to make positive changes for humanity as a whole. Atheism is then a luxury while theism is a necessity. The reader is strongly urged to consider the footnotes for greater understanding. (shrink)

This article is concerned with ‘how’ newsworthiness is constructed linguistically/discursively in a sample of Iranian crime and misbehaviour reports. This is new as both linguistic analysis of ‘crime reports’ and the context of ‘Iranian journalism’ are among under-researched areas. One-month worth editions of two Iranian/farsi language newspapers were collected, and the data were analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively with reference to the analytical framework of Bednarek and Caple. While the quantitative analysis showed the construction of Eliteness as the most frequent (...) news value in both newspapers, there were differences in the construction of news values between the newspapers. Qualitative analysis of the data also showed the construction of news values in line with the sociocultural values prevalent in the society as well as the possible role of state and political authorities. (shrink)

In an illuminating article, Dimitri Gutas has tried to show that Avicenna's theory of knowledge should be understood within a full-blown empiricist framework very similar to that of John Locke.1 Gutas' argument is based on an analysis of Avicennian 'principles of syllogism'2. The principles of syllogism are those judgments and propositions that form the irreducible and axiomatic foundations of syllogisms and definitions.3 Avicenna categorizes these principles based on how we accept and acknowledge the truth of them. This categorization appears, with (...) some slight modifications, in many places in Avicenna's oeuvre, for example in the Kitāb al-Burhān of al-Šifā',4 and the logic parts of... (shrink)