Science and religion have been described as the “two dominant forces in our culture”. As such, the relation between them has been a matter of intense debate, having profound implications for deeper understanding of our place in the universe. One position naturally associated with scientists of a materialistic outlook is that science and religion are contradictory, incompatible worldviews; however, a great deal of recent literature criticises this “conflict thesis” as simple-minded, essentially ignorant of the nature of religion and its philosophical (...) and theological underpinnings. In this first part of a two-part article, I set out the wide-ranging background required for a proper understanding of the debate as a preliminary for the second part, in which Ian Barbour ’s influential four-fold typology of science-religion relations is critically assessed, leading to the conclusion that the conflict model is not to be so easily dismissed. (shrink)

The urgency of the research topic is that the attempt, through the prism of higher education in Ukraine, is to outline the factors and opportunities for forming a positive image of a modern teacher as the basis for the competitiveness of a higher educational institution. The purpose of the article is: rethinking the teacher’s image in conditions of growing demands and increasing competitiveness among higher education institutions. The objectives of the study are to summarize the data of the investigated problem (...) and to develop a model for the development of theoretical aspects of forming a teacher’s positive image in the context of the growth of the status of the university, and an analysis of the interdependence of the teacher’s image and his professional competence, practical skills, and the ability to associate theory with practice. The research methodology is general scientific and special-disciplinary methods of scientific research. In particular, the methods of theoretical generalization, analogy and abstraction are used to clarify the conditions, specifics and realities of the modern educational process, in particular – in higher educational institutions; deduction and induction, analysis and synthesis – to identify systemic problems of Ukrainian universities the needs satisfaction of educational services users; the synthesis of progressive ideas on designing ways to enhance the teacher’s positive image in the context of the growth of the status of higher education institutions. Also, special-disciplinary methods of scientific research are used: comparison, systematization and grouping – to generalize the model of development of theoretical aspects of creating of a positive image of the teacher in the context of the formation of the image of the university; analytical – in the analysis of the interdependence of the teacher's image and his professional competence, practical skills and ability to associate theory with practice, etc. The result of the study is a theoretical understanding of the teacher’s image in the context of the formation of the competitiveness of a higher educational institution. The result of the analysis is the constant, systematic improvement of their own professional competencies. And only under this condition, the teacher will be able to rely on the authority and respect among students and colleagues. It is noted that the current state of higher education dictates the necessity of finding new ways of solving problems of increasing the efficiency of not only training, preparation of a specialist in the labor market, but also the efficiency of the activity of a higher educational establishment in conditions of autonomy. Conclusion. The positive image of the teacher, and in general the educational institution, will increase the authority of the professions and specialties of higher education. And philosophy itself should assume responsibility for the formation of the future teacher, since since ancient times, philosophy has been, is and will be the reason for the comprehension of wisdom. The image of a modern teacher largely depends on his professional competence in practical skills and the ability to instruct students to study the theory in close relationship with practice. After all, knowledge becomes effective only in the applied aspect, in particular, when applying the principle of “theory-practice-theory". (shrink)

In the preceding Part 1 of this two-part paper, I set out the background necessary for an understanding of the current status of the debate surrounding the relationship between science and religion. In this second part, I will outline Ian Barbour’s influential four-fold typology of the possible relations, compare it with other similar taxonomies, and justify its choice as the basis for further detailed discussion. Arguments are then given for and against each of Barbour’s four models: conflict, independence, integration and (...) dialogue. In contradiction of the recent trend to dismiss the conflict model as overly “simplistic”, I conclude that it is the clear front-runner. Critical examination reveals that theology (the academic face of religion) typically proceeds by first affirming belief in God and then seeking rationalisations that protect this belief against contrary evidence. As this is the very antithesis of scientific endeavour, the two disciplines are in unavoidable and irreconcilable conflict. (shrink)

Relevance of research. Any religion in the world emphasizes the woman's femininity, namely an anthropological feature that does not require similarity with the functional features of her husband. However, in turn, it has the potential of a comprehensive development of the individual as a mother, and the realization of the role of women in society. The misconceptions that maternity lifts women's potential and suppresses their personal development causes a lot of controversial issues that lead to negative manifestations of gender inequality. (...) Negative manifestations of the perception of false positions lead to terrible structural changes in society, ruin the foundations of the laws of motherhood, have consequences of the aging of the nation, the loss of human spiritual humanism. Women lose the opportunity to feel like a mother and transfer their love of work to work as a child. Therefore, its main base anthropological identity is reduced to zero in this case and makes a woman "uncertain" gender, which will never find its place in society. The aim of the study.It based on the study of the anthropological horizons of gender inequality within the framework of religious canons and modern trends in the manifestation of business, the loss of anthropological value of women. The author's team has proved that each of the religions of the world pays much attention to women as mothers, their roles in society with exceptional abilities and special qualities. None of the religions does restrict women in revealing these abilities, but places anthropological peculiarity on the first place of a woman-mother, guardian of the family. Religion acts as a universal anthropological phenomenon, which reveals each individual essential element characteristic of every person and emphasizes its importance for society. (shrink)

Molinism attempts to resolve the incompatibility of divine foreknowledge and human libertarian freedom by the inclusion of the divine will into the solution. Moreover, middle knowledge is providentially useful under the Molinist model because of the way God uses it. This speaks of an integral link between the divine will and intellect that works in such a way as to provide a foreknowledge solution and, allegedly, the best view of providence. Nevertheless, there have been several anti-Molinist arguments by analogy which (...) suggest that the God presented in the Molinist model is a manipulator, and therefore something is lost or undermined in the libertarian freedom that Molinism purports to uphold through its model of foreknowledge and providence. This thesis examines the anti-Molinist charge of manipulation primarily by analysing how God uses information known through middle knowledge. The findings of the anti-Molinist arguments from analogy are reconstructed to form deductive arguments. These are evaluated against standard definitions of objectionable manipulation. It is concluded through analysis of these stronger, deductive arguments that divine providence under the Molinist model is a case of objectionable manipulation, one which many theists, classical or progressive, should find abhorrent. The effects of manipulation on ostensible libertarian freedom are then analysed, leading to the conclusion that Molinist-style manipulation results in a form of free-will compatibilism, ergo, the divine foreknowledge problem is not answered, nor is the result compatible with libertarian freedom. Given that it is close to a form of divine determinism, Molinism is then compared with Calvinism along several lines of criticism, namely whether such a God is good, loving and personal. (shrink)

In 1962 appeared one of the classic articles in Anglo-Saxon manuscript studies, the publication of two eleventh-century fragments of leaves of Old English found in the binding of a seventeenth-century printed book in the library of the University of Kansas, Lawrence. The fragment that more nearly concerns the present article now carries the shelf mark Pryce MS C2:1 in the Kenneth Spencer Research Library . It is a large part of a single leaf from The Legend of the Holy Cross (...) before Christ, an edifying work known in full only in a twelfth-century copy, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 343, fols. 14v–20v . Working from a photograph the great paleographer and codicologist N. R. Ker attributed the hand of the Kansas fragment to the scribe who also wrote the texts of two bits of the same work found in the library of Matthew Parker, archbishop of Canterbury , at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, now MS 557 . He concluded, no doubt rightly, that all three are part of one manuscript. (shrink)

In my target article, I argued (1) that the relationship between neocortical size and group size in primates implies that there is a cognitive limit on the size of human groups, and (2) that time constraints forced the evolution of language as a more efficient means of bonding the large groups that humans evolved. The doubts about these claims raised by these additional commentaries largely reflect misinterpretation of my original claims.

The Oxford text of this passage reads as follows:This gives the received text and punctuation. No generally agreed meaning has been found in the opening sentence as it thus stands; nor have any of the numerous alternative versions which have been proposed gained widespread support. In this paper I suggest that good sense can, after all, be made of this passage in its received form.

Probability kinematics is the theory of how subjective probabilities change with time, in response to certain constraints . Rules are classified by the imposed constraints for which the rules prescribe a procedure for updating one's opinion. The first is simple conditionalization , and the second Jeffrey conditionalization . It is demonstrated by a symmetry argument that these rules are the unique admissible rules for those constraints, and moreover, that any probability kinematic rule must be equivalent to a conditionalization preceded by (...) a determination of the values x i to be given to the members of such a partition. Next two rival rules which can go beyond such conditionalization are described. INFOMIN and MTP . Their properties are investigated and compared. (shrink)

R.I.G Hughes offers the first detailed and accessible analysis of the Hilbert-space models used in quantum theory and explains why they are so successful.

One problem with assessing quantum logic is that there are considerable differences between its practitioners. In particular they offer different versions of the set of sentences which the logic governs. On some accounts the sentences involved describe events, on others they are ascriptions of properties. In this paper a framework is offered within which to discuss different quantum logical interpretations of quantum theory, and then the works of Jauch, Putnam, van Fraassen and Kochen are located within it.

Книга предназначена для философов, социологов, историков, студентов гуманитарных специальностей и всех интересующихся панорамой развития русской историко-философской мысли.

There can be no doubt that we do know one another. We know that others exist and we know a good deal about others. The question is how we know others. To say that others do not exist would be to assert a solipsism—a theory which no serious philosopher has ever maintained. Solipsism is absurd. Not because it is self-contradictory, for there is nothing self-contradictory in the notion that I alone exist having the experiences and thoughts which I do have (...) and that apart from me nothing and no one else exists. It is absurd simply because others do exist and I know this; because, that is to say, it contradicts the known evidence. This is the sole—but the adequate—ground for concluding solipsism to be absurd. Any discussion of this present problem, therefore, must begin with, the recognition of the fact that knowledge of others occurs. (shrink)

The present stage of development of the philosophy of language is marked by the joining of efforts of philosophers, logicians, and linguists for solution of one of the most difficult problems posed by the progress of scientific knowledge - the problem of modeling the aspect of meaning, of semantics, of natural language. The solution of this problem governs not only the building of a general theory of language, not only scientific explanation of the phenomenon of the understanding of language and (...) solution of numerous problems of practical importance with respect to automatic language processing, but also the defining of the place and function of language in the process of cognition and understanding of the world, a matter that is fundamental to methodology. (shrink)

The pair (A, Δ ), where A is a physical quantity (an observable) and Δ a subset of the reals, may be called an 'experimental question'. The set Q of experimental questions is, in classical mechanics, a Boolean algebra, and in quantum mechanics an orthomodular lattice (and also a transitive partial Boolean algebra). The question is raised: can we specify a priori what algebraic structure Q must have in any theory whatsoever? Several proposals suggesting that Q must be a lattice (...) are discussed, and rejected in favor of the weak claim that Q must be a Boolean atlas. (shrink)

Locus equations offer promise for an understanding of at least some aspects of perceptual invariance in speech, but they were discovered almost fortuitously. With the present availability of powerful machine learning algorithms, ignorance -based automatic discovery procedures are starting to supplant knowledge-based scientific inquiry. Principles of self-learning and self-organization are powerful tools for speech research but remain somewhat under-utilized.

An awareness of the special role of the time factor in the organization and functioning of living systems and achievements in the study of biological clocks have posed the problem of the role of the time factor in relation to the whole concept of reflection of reality. The study of this role is one of the extremely timely and fundamental tasks of scientific theory. The problem of "reflection and time" has essentially become one of the main lines of general theoretical (...) attempts to understand the structure of space and time and the unity of the world, the principle of the universal interrelatedness and mutual dependence among objects and phenomena, and the essence of the reflective activity of living systems. (shrink)