Ethical and quality concerns are important concerns in doctoral research programs and often draw the attention of governments, universities governing bodies, academics, and research students. Addressing these concerns is key to maintaining and improving the quality of doctoral research. This study used generic qualitative research design. The sample of the study consisting of seventeen doctoral students and ten doctoral supervisors was selected from social science doctoral programs using purposive sampling technique. Interviews were used as data collection tools. The study aimed (...) at contributing to the areas of quality and ethical processes and outcomes in social science research in the Pakistani context where ethical and quality dimensions in educational research have been relatively less explored. The study indicated several ethical and quality issues in the doctoral research programs including inadequate research supervision and evaluation processes, inadequate course work, low teaching quality, and a focus on getting degrees rather than on obtaining genuine scholarship. Policy makers and higher education institutions may need to deal with issues that lead to a compromise on doctoral research studies in ethical and quality terms. The findings of this study may prove helpful to remedy some of the existing causes of ethical and quality issues in research at the PhD level and may help to produce value added research for social and economic progress. Further research may be conducted to explore possible ethical and quality concerns in natural sciences doctoral programs and to explore possible intervention-mechanisms for ensuring ethical and quality concerns in such programs. (shrink)

This study sheds light on strategies for retaining skilled pharmacists in Pakistan's pharmaceutical sector, offering valuable insights for both academia and industry stakeholders by investigating the impact of human resource management practices, including training and development, compensation and rewards, job performance, and job satisfaction, on employee retention. It also examines the moderating role of career growth in this context. Theoretical foundations are grounded in international migration theories and social exchange theory, providing a comprehensive framework for the study. A cross-sectional survey (...) design was used to collect data from 254 pharmacists in southern Punjab, Pakistan. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed for data analysis. Findings reveal that training and development, compensation and rewards, job performance, and job satisfaction all have significant direct effects on employee retention. Additionally, career growth acts as a crucial moderator, strengthening the relationship between training and development and job performance, as well as compensation and rewards and job satisfaction in relation to employee retention. Theoretical implications emphasize the importance of tailored training programs, fair compensation practices, and career growth opportunities. Practical recommendations include creating a positive work environment, rewarding high-performing employees, and fostering career development. Future research directions encompass longitudinal studies, the influence of organizational culture and technology, regional variations, and additional factors affecting retention. (shrink)

Bound-constrained optimization has wide applications in science and engineering. In the last two decades, various evolutionary algorithms were developed under the umbrella of evolutionary computation for solving various bound-constrained benchmark functions and various real-world problems. In general, the developed evolutionary algorithms belong to nature-inspired algorithms and swarm intelligence paradigms. Differential evolutionary algorithm is one of the most popular and well-known EAs and has secured top ranks in most of the EA competitions in the special session of the IEEE Congress on (...) Evolutionary Computation. In this paper, a customized differential evolutionary algorithm is suggested and applied on twenty-nine large-scale bound-constrained benchmark functions. The suggested C-DE algorithm has obtained promising numerical results in its 51 independent runs of simulations. Most of the 2013 IEEE-CEC benchmark functions are tackled efficiently in terms of proximity and diversity. (shrink)

Energy poverty is a problem that affects developed and developing economies, and its mitigation is of great significance to social welfare. EP affects Latin American countries, and policymakers have recently attempted to address this issue, particularly in the aftermath of the recent economic crisis. It is essential to measure and evaluate EP to implement strategies and policies effectively. Using a panel quantile regression approach, we investigate the heterogeneous impact of green finance, renewable energy, and energy efficiency on EP for 33 (...) Latin American countries from 2000 to 2018. Furthermore, certain associated control variables are incorporated into our model to avoid an omitted variable bias. According to empirical results, the impact of independent variables on EP is heterogeneous. Specifically, green finance is an essential source of alleviating EP, and it has a significant positive effect across all quantiles, but it is especially strong in the middle quantiles. RE and EE significantly mitigate EP, with the strongest effects occurring at higher quantiles. By including green finance, RE, and EE as the main explanatory determinants of EP, the findings urge policymakers in Latin American countries to design a comprehensive energy conservation policy to minimize the effects of massive EP. (shrink)

Most studies have shown that reading is an important source of incidental vocabulary learning, and repeated reading may have a positive effect on learning gains. However, the study of incidental vocabulary learning through listening is still limited, and the immediate and long-term effects on different vocabulary knowledge dimensions are unclear. Furthermore, no empirical studies have been conducted to investigate the association between learning gains and preexisting vocabulary knowledge in listening. This article examines the effects of listening to English songs on (...) unintentional vocabulary learning and vocabulary retention through three different vocabulary knowledge dimensions: word recognition, meaning association, and grammar identification. A total of 114 Chinese college students participated in the study, and they were given vocabulary evaluations at different times based on three separate components of vocabulary knowledge. The effects of repeated listening and learners’ prior vocabulary knowledge were also investigated. According to the findings, listening to songs can improve vocabulary knowledge, particularly in the area of word recognition, which can be retained 4 weeks later. Furthermore, the effect of listening three times was superior than listening one or five times, which provides teachers and learners with guidance for teaching or learning vocabulary more effectively. Finally, for low, intermediate, and high-level learners, there was an immediate and positive effect on the dimensions of word recognition and meaning connection after listening, and this knowledge is likely to be preserved 4 weeks later. (shrink)

Women in the nineteenth century were the worst victims of patriarchy, socio-cultural norms and class difference. It was not a good time for women. In the Victorian era, women did not have the right to vote, own property or come out of the violent marriage. This picture has been painted by many writers of the time. Of all the Victorian novelists, Eliot and Hardy have the gifted ability to chart the women situation from all angles. Both writers show that women (...) had few rights and privileges. The socio-cultural and economic factors further contributed to women’s oppression. Women were expected to remain attached to the domestic sphere. Marriage is one such institution, which during the Victorian period became a tool for women’s exploitation and subjugation. The heroines and protagonists suffer due to social and moral taboos. Mismatch in marriage leads to several problems for the couple and their respective families. George Eliot in her novel Middlemarch and Thomas Hardy in his work The Return of the Native, portray the heroines who decide to step into life that is just contrary to their expectations and later regret their decisions. This paper would attempt to analyze the repercussions of their choices and compare their nature and the line of action these heroines take to deal with the situation they are placed into. (shrink)

Plastic consumption is an important aspect of contemporary living, and studies that systematically examine consumers’ plastic waste recycling intentions from an ethical perspective are scarce. Considering the severity of plastic waste recycling problems globally based on the stimulus-organism-response paradigm, this study analyses how the information publicity influences consumers’ plastic waste recycling intentions from an ethical perspective in an emerging market economy. We investigate this link by focusing on the indirect effect of perceived social pressure and the moderating role of media (...) disposition (i.e., media richness and content trustworthiness). Data from a three-wave field survey of 469 household consumers from China showed that social pressure mediated the positive relationship between information publicity and ethical recycling intentions. Additionally, media richness and content trustworthiness moderate the link between information publicity and consumers’ perceptions of social pressure. These findings provide encouraging evidence for applying the SOR paradigm to explain the ethical recycling intention of consumers. The findings may assist policymakers in motivating consumers to think ethically about plastic waste recycling. (shrink)

Climate change has increasingly been recognised and associated with consumer behaviour: Practitioners are developing their strategies to reduce environmental degradation while increasing the management of sustainable consumption; it needs to better understand consumer attitudes and eco-friendly factors about the issue. Therefore, the current study focused to understand the effects of pro-environmental factors on individuals’ environmental attitudes through the lens of theory of planned behaviour in a cross-cultural setting. Moreover, present research focuses on the moderating role that religiosity plays in causal (...) pathways between certain determinants and intentions in this context. A multi-wave time-lagged research design was employed in this study, and university students from two developing countries were surveyed. The findings revealed pronounced similarities between the two examined countries. Overwhelmingly, pro-environmental factors examined were found to be positively related to attitude formation. Further results showed that attitude and subjective norms are significant predictors of the intention to purchase products with recycled packaging. Moreover, with the exception of perceived behavioural control, religiosity moderates the relationships between all the determinants of TPB and intention to purchase recycled packaged products. Present study offers insightful implications to management of these emerging and/or similar cultural markets regarding customer value for green products. Using TPB, present study broadened and deepen extant stream of literature on consumption of recycled packaged products in two highly emerging markets; Pakistan and Malaysia. (shrink)

In this eleventh book of scilogs – called in-turns and out-turns –, one may find new and old questions and solutions, referring mostly to topics on Neutrosophy, but also Multispace, with miscellaneous addition of topics on Physics, Mathematics, or Sociology – email messages to research colleagues, or replies, notes about authors, articles, or books, spontaneous ideas, and so on. -/- Exchanging ideas with Prem Kumar Singh, Feng Liu, Nicolae Bălașa, Jimmy Quellet, Minodora Rușchița, Frank Gelli, A. R. Vătuiu, Victor Christianto, (...) Vladimir I. Rogozhin, Robert Neil Boyd, Akira Kanda, Stefan Spaarmann, Oliver Consa, Yabin Shao, Junle Zhuo, Nivetha Martin, Said Broumi, Jean Dezert, Erick González, Tomasz Witczak, B. De Baets, I. Couso, D. Dubois, L. Good, Mihaela Colhon, Atiqe Ur Rahman, Muhammad Saeed, Muhammad Ihsan, Edeline Nancy, Shawkat Alkhazaleh, Shazia Rana, Vasantha Kandasamy, Santanu Acharjee, Mohamed Al-Shmrani, Parimala Manie, Mehmet Unver, Murat Olgun, Adel Aleidhri, Akira Kanda, Ilanthenral Kandasamy, Mircea Zărnescu, R. Tayebi Khorami, Arsham Borumand Saeid, Maisam Jdid, M. Abobala, Riad Hamido, Rafael Rojas, Esmaeil Zarei, Faisal Khan, Rouzbeh Abbassi, Adel Al-Odhari, Henry Garrett, Ackbar Rezaei, Saeid Jafari, Karthika Muthusamy, Harish Garg, Huda E. Khalid, Gonca D. Güngör, Muslim A. Noah Zainal, Fakhry Asad Agusfrianto, Madeleine Al-Tahan, Mariam Hariri, Yudi Mahatma, Masoud Ghods, Marco Brigliadori, Luis Enrique Aponte Pérez, Amr Mohammed, M. Aslam (in order of reference in the book). (shrink)

This tenth volume of Collected Papers includes 86 papers in English and Spanish languages comprising 972 pages, written between 2014-2022 by the author alone or in collaboration with the following 105 co-authors (alphabetically ordered) from 26 countries: Abu Sufian, Ali Hassan, Ali Safaa Sadiq, Anirudha Ghosh, Assia Bakali, Atiqe Ur Rahman, Laura Bogdan, Willem K.M. Brauers, Erick González Caballero, Fausto Cavallaro, Gavrilă Calefariu, T. Chalapathi, Victor Christianto, Mihaela Colhon, Sergiu Boris Cononovici, Mamoni Dhar, Irfan Deli, Rebeca Escobar-Jara, Alexandru Gal, N. (...) Gandotra, Sudipta Gayen, Vassilis C. Gerogiannis, Noel Batista Hernández, Hongnian Yu, Hongbo Wang, Mihaiela Iliescu, F. Nirmala Irudayam, Sripati Jha, Darjan Karabašević, T. Katican, Bakhtawar Ali Khan, Hina Khan, Volodymyr Krasnoholovets, R. Kiran Kumar, Manoranjan Kumar Singh, Ranjan Kumar, M. Lathamaheswari, Yasar Mahmood, Nivetha Martin, Adrian Mărgean, Octavian Melinte, Mingcong Deng, Marcel Migdalovici, Monika Moga, Sana Moin, Mohamed Abdel-Basset, Mohamed Elhoseny, Rehab Mohamed, Mohamed Talea, Kalyan Mondal, Muhammad Aslam, Muhammad Aslam Malik, Muhammad Ihsan, Muhammad Naveed Jafar, Muhammad Rayees Ahmad, Muhammad Saeed, Muhammad Saqlain, Muhammad Shabir, Mujahid Abbas, Mumtaz Ali, Radu I. Munteanu, Ghulam Murtaza, Munazza Naz, Tahsin Oner, ‪Gabrijela Popović‬‬‬‬‬, Surapati Pramanik, R. Priya, S.P. Priyadharshini, Midha Qayyum, Quang-Thinh Bui, Shazia Rana, Akbara Rezaei, Jesús Estupiñán Ricardo, Rıdvan Sahin, Saeeda Mirvakili, Said Broumi, A. A. Salama, Flavius Aurelian Sârbu, Ganeshsree Selvachandran, Javid Shabbir, Shio Gai Quek, Son Hoang Le, Florentin Smarandache, Dragiša Stanujkić, S. Sudha, Taha Yasin Ozturk, Zaigham Tahir, The Houw Iong, Ayse Topal, Alptekin Ulutaș, Maikel Yelandi Leyva Vázquez, Rizha Vitania, Luige Vlădăreanu, Victor Vlădăreanu, Ștefan Vlăduțescu, J. Vimala, Dan Valeriu Voinea, Adem Yolcu, Yongfei Feng, Abd El-Nasser H. Zaied, Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas.‬‬. (shrink)

Rashad Rehman and Darius J. Bägli draw on the example of congenital adrenal hyperplasia in order to outline appropriate uses of the term “disorder” versus “difference” of sexual development.

Drawing on conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study examined the underlying mechanism through which workplace bullying (WB) affects employees’ life satisfaction via job-related anxiety and insomnia. Time-lagged data were collected at two points in time from 211 doctor interns working in various hospitals in Pakistan. Our results fully supported a proposed serial multiple-mediator model. Workplace bullying was indirectly related to life satisfaction via job-related anxiety and insomnia. This study provides evidence of a spillover effect as to how workplace bullying (...) increases employees’ job-related anxiety which in turn leads to insomnia resulting in reduced employees’ life satisfaction. The present study extends research on workplace bullying to display its theoretical as well as empirical effects on life satisfaction. It demonstrates that workplace bullying as an occupational and psychological stressor has multiple effects on employees’ life satisfaction through a serial mediation model in the context of a developing country. It further explains that workplace bullying not only affects an employee’s workplace behaviors but also extends to the employee’s overall life satisfaction. (shrink)

This article is a preliminary draft for initiating and commencing a new pioneer dimension of expression. To deal with higher-dimensional data or information flowing in this modern era of information technology and artificial intelligence, some innovative super algebraic structures are essential to be formulated. In this paper, we have introduced such matrices that have multiple layers and clusters of layers to portray multi-dimensional data or massively dispersed information of the plithogenic universe made up of numerous subjects their attributes, and sub-attributes. (...) For grasping that field of parallel information, events, and realities flowing from the micro to the macro level of universes, we have constructed hypersoft and hyper-super-soft matrices in a Plithogenic Fuzzy environment. These Matrices classify the non-physical attributes by accumulating the physical subjects and further sort the physical subjects by accumulating their non-physical attributes. We presented themasPlithogenicAttributiveSubjectivelyWholeHyper-Super-Soft-Matrix(PASWHSS-Matrix)andPlithogenic Subjective Attributively Whole-Hyper-Super-Soft-Matrix (PSAWHSS-Matrix). Several types of views and level-layers of these matrices are described. In addition, some local aggregation operators for Plithogenic Fuzzy Hypersoft Set (PPFHS-Set) are developed. Finally, few applications of these matrices and operators are used as numerical examples of COVID-19 data structures. (shrink)

The ‘best interests’ standard is a highly seductive standard in English law. Not only does it appear to be fairly uncontroversial but it also presents as the most sensible, objective and ‘fair’ method of dealing with decision making on behalf of those who are perceived to be the most vulnerable within society. This article aims to provide a critical appraisal of how the standard has been applied within family law, to outline how the standard is to be applied within healthcare (...) law and, finally, to assess the relevance of the family law experience of the best interests standard to the operation of the standards as envisaged by the MCA. (shrink)

This study investigates the connection between following Islamic work ethics (IWE) and workplace deviance, and explores the role of perceived organizational politics as a mediator and the impact of incivility initiated by supervisors as a second-stage moderator. Data were collected via a two-wave survey of 205 professionals in various industries. Results show that those who adhere to IWE exhibit a negative link to workplace deviance, as they have less involvement in organizational politics. The study also finds that incivility initiated by (...) supervisors intensifies the positive relationship between perceived organizational politics and workplace deviance. Interestingly, the study shows that the effect of IWE in reducing workplace deviance through organizational politics is stronger when incivility is high. The findings offer valuable insights for organizations on the positive impact of adhering to IWE on reducing perceived organizational politics and workplace deviance. (shrink)

This article examines the risk and return profiles of stock indices composed of companies meeting environmental, social and governance screening criteria [such as the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices ] and conventional composite indices of eight Asian countries from 2002 to 2014. The results indicate that there are no significant differences in the returns or risk-adjusted returns between the ESG indices and the composite indices within countries. The results do reveal that the market volatility of the ESG indices is higher than (...) the market volatility of the conventional indices. Market betas of DJSI and ESG equity indices are significantly lower than betas of the composite equity indices. The overall results indicate that the performance of ESG equity indices of many Asian countries is similar to the performance of conventional indices, suggesting that investors can pursue socially responsible investing objectives without a material difference in portfolio performance from conventional investing. (shrink)

A modern classic of Universal Sufism that explores the mystical dimensions of music-and the musical dimensions of mysticism. Music, according to Sufi teaching, is really a small expression of the overwhelming and perfect harmony of the whole universe-and that is the secret of its amazing power to move us. The Indian Sufi master Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882-1927), the first teacher to bring the Sufi mystical tradition to the West, was an accomplished musician himself. His lucid exposition of music's divine (...) nature has become a modern classic, beloved not only by those interested in Sufism but by musicians of all kinds. This newly reissued edition includes a foreword by Pir Zia Inayat Khan, Hazrat Inayat Khan's grandson and the current leader of the Inayati Order, the widespread Western Sufi organization that Hazrat Inayat Khan founded. (shrink)

Mike Shur’s Netflix-aired The Good Place has been a focus of philosophical attention by both popular-culture (written by pop-philosophers) and professional philosophers. This attention is merited. The Good Place is a philosophically rich TV show. The Good Place is based in three places: The Good Place, The Medium Place and The Bad Place. Every human being ends up in one of these places after they die based on their good points (points received for doing good actions e.g., chewing with your (...) mouth closed) and bad points (points received for doing bad actions e.g., virtue-signaling). Spoiler alert: by Season 4 of The Good Place (the fourth and final season), the main characters of the show – Eleanor, Chidi, Jason and Tahani – eventually reach the real Good Place (not the fake “Good Place” they had been tortured in by the human-formed, architect demon Michael in Season 1). However, when they reach the real Good Place after much struggle with ethical dilemmas, recognition of their moral flaws and moral development, they find themselves wanting to leave: they were unsatisfied with what The Good Place had to offer and wanted to be freed from it. This paper is concerned with the following questions: What accounts for their desire to be freed from The Good Place? What kind of freedom were they trying to achieve, and how did The Good Place represent it? Reflecting on these (and similar) questions, I argue that St. Thomas (who made it into The Good Place!) gives an ingenious and plausible answer: it was not merely that The Good Place was characterized by pure hedonism (a core deficit of The Good Place, identified by its creators), but more specifically that they had a positive desire for a freedom from temporal goods/experiences which do not satisfy the longings of the human heart and a freedom for the enjoyment of perfect freedom. While The Good Place ends in much perplexity, I argue that the freedom they desired was a rudimentary articulation of the freedom that St. Thomas identifies in heaven. (shrink)

Contract cheating is a growing menace that most academic institutions are grappling with globally. With governments now taking steps to help combat the industry and ban such services, it is also important to encourage students to stay away from such services through proactive strategies to raise awareness so that students stop using such services. This paper uses a case study approach to capture a time-series data from three years of a university campus’s efforts to raise awareness by celebrating the International (...) Centre for Academic Integrity ‘s International Day of Action Against Contract Cheating. This is in order to explore if such campaigns can be used as tools to increase student understanding of contract cheating as an academic misconduct issue and what roles students can play in raising awareness among other students on contract cheating. Proposing to look at contract cheating as a social issue, the paper positions the misconduct as such and explores how awareness campaigns can help address contract cheating. Over the three years, results show steep increase in awareness of contract cheating, a type of academic misconduct, and that students themselves have a positive influence on other students when raising awareness. An interesting finding of the study is that graduated students have had an impact by showing responsibility to younger students and by actively denouncing contract cheating companies and their approaches on social media; thus providing solid evidence that awareness campaigns can help increase awareness which is the first step towards building a culture of integrity in any campus. (shrink)

_In light of Herzberg's two-factor theory, the primary goal of this paper is to investigate the job satisfaction of the faculty members of private and public sector universities in Islamabad with specific reference to hygiene and motivation factors. For the purpose the sample contained 150 staff of private and public universities of Islamabad. The data collection was carried out through Minnesota Questionnaire as a tool of job satisfaction. The sampling techniques of proportional, stratified sampling was selected. The data was analyzed (...) through quantitative method by using the SPSS 21 st edition named as Statistical Package for social science. The results were reflected by using independent samples t-test. According to the study's findings the hygiene factor has significant impact on job satisfaction of participants with reference to Salary, Status, Work Conditions, Interpersonal Relationship with Subordinates and Possibility for Personal Growth besides motivational elements such as recognition and achievement. The data shows that high motivational level is found in public universities faculty member than the private sector universities._. (shrink)

_In light of Herzberg's two-factor theory, the primary goal of this paper is to investigate the job satisfaction of the faculty members of private and public sector universities in Islamabad with specific reference to hygiene and motivation factors. For the purpose the sample contained 150 staff of private and public universities of Islamabad. The data collection was carried out through Minnesota Questionnaire as a tool of job satisfaction. The sampling techniques of proportional, stratified sampling was selected. The data was analyzed (...) through quantitative method by using the SPSS 21 st edition named as Statistical Package for social science. The results were reflected by using independent samples t-test. According to the study's findings the hygiene factor has significant impact on job satisfaction of participants with reference to Salary, Status, Work Conditions, Interpersonal Relationship with Subordinates and Possibility for Personal Growth besides motivational elements such as recognition and achievement. The data shows that high motivational level is found in public universities faculty member than the private sector universities._. (shrink)

Prince of philosophers -- The emergence of Islam -- Boy genius -- Court physician -- A traveling philosopher -- Death of an intellectual -- A lasting legacy.

This chapter has two aims.* First, it exegetes Aquinas’ notion of peace (pax) in his Commentary on the Gospel of St. John (14:7), which is centred around the definition, kinds and possibility of a perfected peace, as well as how love (amor) is the cause of peace. Second, rather than defending Aquinas’ position at length, I take the more humble task to defend one attractive, plausible feature of Aquinas’ position, showing how it reveals Medieval wisdom for the establishment of modern (...) peace. The position is two-fold: First, Aquinas’ position – at least how Josef Pieper (1904–97) reads him – that love is essentially the affirmation of the goodness of the existence of the other person. I read this as an empirically-supported, plausible source of peace. This thesis also reiterates Aquinas’ rejection of monadic theories of peace which hold that peace need only be outward (exterius) e.g., establishing socio-political peace by fighting for human rights, and not inward (interius) e.g., peace with oneself by cultivating the inner life (14, 7, 1962). Second, Aquinas’ position that love, and not other candidates e.g., tolerance, as the cause of peace, is an alternative, plausible position that merits critical attention. (shrink)

The journey of phenomenology apparently is not so extensive, because it was the first half of the twentieth century when Edmund Husserl appeared as the founder of phenomenology. But, it has its very roots in the works of ancient Greek philosophers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. This journey did not stopped here, as various phenomenologists have also been contributing in this field and establishing the linkage between phenomenology and symbolic interactionism as well as its very relation to research. Researchers in (...) the presented work have critically analyzed the contributions of prominent phenomenologists, i.e. from Hegel to Dreyfus and have applied relational analysis. The present study propounds that with the passage of time, the concept of phenomenology has been constructively evolving; in a sense that it has become more calculative. (shrink)

Philosophers have various responsibilities. Articulating these responsibilities, however, is contingent on what one means by “philosophy” and what philosophers have “expertise” in. Responsible philosophers must therefore interact with the following kinds of questions: What do philosophers have expertise in? What responsibilities do philosophers have as intellectual experts, and to whom are they responsible? What are philosophers supposed to know and be able to publicly convey? What is the role of a philosopher in contributing to local, institutional, and global responsibilities? This (...) paper concerns itself with defending and articulating one such responsibility philosophers have: the invitation to others to engage in philosophizing. Using Josef Pieper’s (1904-97) life and writings as paradigmatically embodying this invitational-approach to philosophy, this paper articulates – by means of stories from his life – how this approach to philosophizing is pedagogically effective for instructors and students of philosophy i.e., in making philosophy worthwhile, accessible and relevant. (shrink)

What do we owe to those who are homeless? This ethical question, difficult both in theory and practice, is doubly difficult in the context of a global pandemic e.g., COVID-19. The traditional answer to this question appeals - in many variations - to becoming benefactors. As benefactors, the beneficiaries - those who are homeless - are better off in virtue of the benefactors' causing a degree of hardship upon themselves via monetary donations, providing food and shelter, et cetera. However, this (...) work argues that while there is a moral responsibility to become benefactors to those who are homeless, there is another moral responsibility not exhausted by the traditional answer. Following its rudimentary articulation in G.K. Chesterton's (1874-1936) essay "The Glass Walking-Stick" (1905), we both articulate and defend the thesis that we are morally obligated to actively participate or share in the suffering of those who are homeless. [Please note the Vol/Iss information is not correct - the link to access this article is currently unavailable]. (shrink)

Many people, communities and countries are in favour of abortion as a healthcare right, arguing that women have a right to receive an abortion upon request. Some contexts place ethical constraints on this right, typically based on the age of the preborn child, the mother’s safety, or the circumstances of the mother (and her conceiving of her child) more generally. At the same time, intersex pediatric surgery (IPS) is being increasingly ethically challenged with many countries banning healthcare facilities from performing (...) IPS. At first, there appears to be no relation between these two ethical issues. However, modern biotechnology such as the assistive reproductive technology (ART), preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), makes it possible to screen for intersex conditions in utero, opening the possibility of intersex-selective abortion (ISA), a sub-set or instance of sex-selective abortion (SSA). What emerges is the realization that if IPS is wrong because, as its critics have argued, it wrongfully discriminates against and harms intersex lives, then ISA is much more wrong because instead of misvaluing intersex lives, it devalues intersex lives altogether. In other words, IPS might, as some have argued, discriminate by implying that an intersex child is better off being male or female but not intersex, but ISA discriminates by implying that an intersex child is better off not existing at all. Some have recognized this connection and have vainly tried to maintain both their pro-abortion commitments and their anti-IPS commitments. This has proved at best duplicitous, and at worst conceptually impossible. While it is known that a strong stance against IPS results in an inability to morally condemn ISA, with one notable exception in moral theology, this connection has not been generally appreciated. (shrink)

On Western philosophy from the point of view of Burmese philosophers.

This work compares Autometrics with dual penalization techniques such as minimax concave penalty and smoothly clipped absolute deviation under asymmetric error distributions such as exponential, gamma, and Frechet with varying sample sizes as well as predictors. Comprehensive simulations, based on a wide variety of scenarios, reveal that the methods considered show improved performance for increased sample size. In the case of low multicollinearity, these methods show good performance in terms of potency, but in gauge, shrinkage methods collapse, and higher gauge (...) leads to overspecification of the models. High levels of multicollinearity adversely affect the performance of Autometrics. In contrast, shrinkage methods are robust in presence of high multicollinearity in terms of potency, but they tend to select a massive set of irrelevant variables. Moreover, we find that expanding the data mitigates the adverse impact of high multicollinearity on Autometrics rapidly and gradually corrects the gauge of shrinkage methods. For empirical application, we take the gold prices data spanning from 1981 to 2020. While comparing the forecasting performance of all selected methods, we divide the data into two parts: data over 1981–2010 are taken as training data, and those over 2011–2020 are used as testing data. All methods are trained for the training data and then are assessed for performance through the testing data. Based on a root-mean-square error and mean absolute error, Autometrics remain the best in capturing the gold prices trend and producing better forecasts than MCP and SCAD. (shrink)

Using a time-lagged design, we tested the main effects of Islamic Work Ethic (IWE) and perceived organizational justice on turnover intentions, job satisfaction, and job involvement. We also investigated the moderating influence of IWE in justice–outcomes relationship. Analyses using data collected from 182 employees revealed that IWE was positively related to satisfaction and involvement and negatively related to turnover intentions. Distributive fairness was negatively related to turnover intentions, whereas procedural justice was positively related to satisfaction. In addition, procedural justice was (...) positively related to involvement and satisfaction for individuals high on IWE however it was negatively related to both outcomes for individuals low on IWE. For low IWE, procedural justice was positively related to turnover intentions, however it was negatively related to turnover intentions for high IWE. In contrast, distributive justice was negatively related to turnover intentions for low IWE and it was positively related to turnover intentions for high IWE. (shrink)

Within the Ideological Surround Model of the social sciences and religion, so-called “universal” perspectives within the psychology of religion can dialogically clarify and be clarified by the “particular” elements of Muslim commitment. This study developed new scales for operationalizing the experience and behavior of Pakistani Muslims during Ramadan. In a sample of university students, one set of experiential factors apparently facilitated, whereas another interfered with the practices of Ramadan. Intrinsic and Extrinsic Personal Religious Orientations correlated with greater and the Extrinsic (...) Social motivation with lower levels of involvement in Ramadan. Relative to these religious orientation measures, Ramadan experience scales displayed incremental validity by explaining additional variance in Ramadan behavior. Women proved to be more religious than men. At the most general level, these data further supported the dialogic assumptions of the Ideological Surround Model of research in the psychology of religion. (shrink)

This paper investigates the prospects of a distinctively Plotinian argument for God’s existence. Specifically, this paper assesses Plotinus’ argument for the One/Good (Enneads; V.1,V.4), a principle rooted in Plato’s Republic (509b6-9), as a philosophical motivation for an argument for God’s existence. While the appropriative task of using Plotinus’ argument for natural theological purposes is not original to this work, this project remains in its philosophical infancy. It is to this end that the Plotinian background from which the argument proceeds is (...) articulated, and thereafter contextualised in Edward Feser’s Plotinian argument. This work defends Feser against two objections he does not consider, concluding that the appropriative strategy is successful and is a significant contribution to natural theology. (shrink)

Rashad Rehman, Nipa Chauhan and Rebecca Greenberg argue that beneficent paternalism should be integrated into shared decision-making in the NICU to maximize the patient’s best interests.

Rashad Rehman calls for the bioethical community to help contribute conceptual clarity to the debate about the ethics of intersex pediatric surgery.

Leadership which lacks ethical conduct can be dangerous, destructive, and even toxic. Ethical leadership, though well discussed in the literature, has been tested empirically as a construct in very few studies. An empirical investigation of ethical leadership in Singapore's construction industry is reported. It is found that ethical leadership is positively and significantly associated with transformational leadership, transformational culture of organization, contingent reward dimension of transactional leadership, leader effectiveness, employee willingness to put in extra effort, and employee satisfaction with the (...) leader. However, it is also found that ethical leadership bears no correlations with transactional leadership. Also, it is negatively correlated with laissez-faire leadership and transactional culture of the organization. The findings also reveal that ethical leadership plays a mediating role in the relationship between employee outcomes and organizational culture. Practical implications of these findings are discussed. Directions for future research are also suggested. (shrink)

This book is about the life and teachings of Abu Bakr Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with Him)- The Frist Caliph of Islam.

This paper examines a political theory implict in Kierkegaard's critique of the novel Two Ages. To achieve that aim, it views Kierkegaard as a political radical relative to modern liberalism and aristocratic conservatism of the 1840's in Denmark, by juxtaposing him to Locke. Basic to the theory is a notion of individuality which relies on three interlocking concepts: will, equality, and autonomy. That notion in turn supports ideas of authority and leadership that throw further light on Kierkegaard's understanding of the (...) relation between religion and politics and suggests what is central to the political logic operative in the critique in his publication Literary Review. (shrink)

On the philosophy of language and fiction.

Jürgen Habermas’s theory of ‘discourse ethics’ has been an important source of inspiration for theories of deliberative democracy and is typically contrasted with agonistic conceptions of democracy represented by theorists such as Chantal Mouffe. In this article I show that this contrast is overstated. By focusing on the different philosophical traditions that underpin Mouffe’s and Habermas’s respective approaches, commentators have generally overlooked the political similarities between these thinkers. I examine Habermas’s and Mouffe’s respective conceptions of democratic politics and argue that (...) they cannot be so neatly distinguished from each other. I show that much of Mouffe’s criticism of Habermas’s theory does not hold up to careful scrutiny, and discourse ethics shares important points of similarity with her own democratic theory. By using critical republican theory to show the similarities in their work, I push beyond the agonistic versus deliberative debate, and show that at the heart of both of these approaches is a critical republican emphasis on the need for civic solidarity, on the constructive role of conflict in democratic politics and on the vital importance of self-government. These are crucial ingredients for the regeneration of democracy in contemporary pluralistic societies. (shrink)