The emergence of the Family Resemblance Approach to nature of science has prompted a fresh wave of scholarship embracing this new approach in science education. The FRA provides an ambitious and practical vision for what NOS-enriched science content should aim for and promotes evidence-based practices in science education to support the enactment of such vision. The present article provides an overview of research and development efforts utilizing the FRA and reviews recent empirical studies including those conducted in preservice science teacher (...) education as well as studies utilizing FRA to analyze NOS representations in curriculum documents and textbooks. The article concludes with implications and recommendations for future research and practice. (shrink)

“Naturalistic fallacy” is generally associated with Moore’s charge against the naturalists. But for Moore, metaphysical ethics, including those of Kant is as guilty as naturalistic ethics in committing the naturalistic fallacy. Here, the fallacy is identifying “good” with anything metaphysical. Moore appreciates that ‘metaphysical’ propositions provide us with a chance to talk about objects that are not natural. And he thinks that metaphysical ethicists’ do not recognise that these objects do not exist at all, rather they think if the object (...) in question does not exist in nature and time it must exist somewhere else, i.e., in a supersensible reality. Moore’smain criticism of metaphysical ethics focuses on the belief that an objects existence is an essential requirement for its ‘goodness’. For Moore, there are non‐natural objects, by definition they do not belong to nature, they do not exist in nature, they are not sensible. Moore’s only difference from the metaphysical ethicists seems to be in saying that these non-natural objects are not supersensible and in fact they do not exist. In this paper I will investigate such similarities and differences between Moore and metaphysical ethicists and where Moore really stands in the metaphysical-naturalistic spectrum. I will concentrate on Kantian ethics, for Moore thinks that Kantian ethics is an exemplar of metaphysical ethics, and Kant has committed naturalistic fallacy. I will try to show that Moore’s argument on Kant committing naturalistic fallacy is gratuitous. I will argue that Moore’s notion of “good” as a non-natural object that does not exist in time ishard to conceive without assuming a ‘transcendental object’ and the existence of a supersensible reality, as Kant does. And I suggest that Moore is as guilty as Kant in stepping into the supersensible reality. (shrink)

The dissertation shows that the arguments advanced by E. D. Hirsch for authorial intention as the criterion of interpretation do not provide a basis for validity in interpretation because the subject-object ontology underlying those arguments is incompatible with the idea of the identity of a text's meaning. The dissertation argues that, inasmuch as Hirsch's model of interpretation presupposes the total separation of meaning and significance and restricts the meaning of the text to the author's intention, it establishes an insurmountable gap (...) between text and interpreter. This dissertation will attempt to show that H.-G. Gadamer's approach to interpretation succeeds where Hirsch's fails in providing a basis for a legitimate and true interpretation. ;For Gadamer, we can only understand a text by assuming that we share a common linguistic horizon. The horizon itself, however, is grounded in the ontological features of the subject-matter of the text. These ontological features, he maintains, manifest themselves in the dialogical character of language and provide a transcendental ground for the possibility of giving a true interpretation of a text. The meaning of a text thus retains an identity, in Gadamer's view, but it is also capable of assuming an indefinite variety of finite expressions for its content. Gadamer accordingly argues that the meaning of a text cannot be legitimately equated with the intentions of its author. ;In Chapter One, the problem of relativity and objectivity in interpretation is presented. In this context, the problem of method and subject-object ontology is discussed. Chapter Two turns to the problem of the identification of meaning with authorial intention. The intentionalist approaches of Knapp, Michaels, Juhl, and Hirsch are criticized. It also delineates Gadamer's approach to the identification of the author. In Chapter Three, the problem of textual identity is discussed in terms of Hirsch's and E. Betti's distinction between meaning and significance. After presenting the dynamic identity of the text in Gadamer, it is argued that textual identity reveals itself in the truth-claim of the text. Chapter Four attempts to articulate how the ontological characteristics of textual meaning can, as Gadamer argues, provide a basis for truthfulness in interpretation. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:From Bookworms to Enchanted Hunters: Why Children ReadMaria Tatar (bio)Sensation SeekersThe laws governing the conservation of cultural energy are particularly effective when it comes to children’s literature. Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Yearling, The Wizard of Oz, Pinocchio, The Wind in the Willows, The Secret Garden, The Snow Queen: these are just a few of the volumes that continue to pull and tug (...) on young readers, drawing them into enchanted other worlds. Their propulsive force has moved from one generation to the next, setting minds into motion, renewing senses, and almost rewiring brains. Favoring expressive intensity over intellectual heft, the books of childhood use no-holds-barred melodramatic strategies until we are under their spell. We can all remember the jolts and shimmer of books we read as children, the moments that sent shivers up and down the spine.“Wow” moments saturate children’s stories, exploiting the emotive power of language for maximum effect.1 Think of the multiple evocations of the web created by the spider Charlotte in E. B. White’s book, how it “glistens” in the light and makes a pattern of “loveliness and mystery.” “What a curious feeling,” Alice declares in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland once she has tasted the contents of a bottle marked “Drink me.” After that, the world she enters only becomes “curiouser and curiouser.” Dorothy lands in Oz and her eyes grow “bigger and bigger” at the “wonderful sights” she sees. They continue widening as she follows the Yellow Brick Road to Oz with her three companions. “A million golden arrows” point the way to Neverland, as the Darling children begin to experience the first in a series of bursts of beauty and rumbles of violence. Those rumbles create similar wow effects. Who can forget the moment when Iorek Byrnison, one [End Page 19]Maria Tatar Maria Tatar is the John L. Loeb Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures at Harvard University, where she chairs the Program in Folklore and Mythology. She is the author of Classic Fairy Tales, The Annotated Brothers Grimm, The Annotated Hans Christian Andersen, and The Hard Facts of the Grimms’ Fairy Tales and has written for the New York Times, the New Republic, and Slate.com.Copyright © 2009 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois... (shrink)

Background: Nurses providing 24-h care for the primary caregiver role have a number of significant roles to play in potential problems or conflicts associated with patient privacy and confidentiality. Research objectives: The objective of the study is to determine the prevailing attitudes towards gossip and the patient privacy practices of nurses working in paediatric units. Research design: A descriptive and cross-sectional design was used. A Descriptive Characteristics Form, a Gossip and Rumour Attitude Scale and a Patient Privacy Scale were used (...) to collect data. Participants and research context: A total of 112 paediatric nurses working in Turkey were included in the study. The response rate was 79.43%. Ethical considerations: Permission to conduct the study was obtained from the university’s ethics committee. The participants were informed of the aim of the study, and voluntary participation, anonymous response and confidentiality were explained to them. Findings: It was observed that nurses who had a higher education level, who were educated about patient privacy and who had read the patient rights regulations were more concerned about patient privacy. Negative correlations were found between the attitudes towards gossiping and the average scores on the patient confidentiality scale. Nurses who negatively defined gossip were more concerned about patient confidentiality. Discussion: Privacy is important for securing and protecting the personal, physical and psychological things that are important and special for patients. It is argued that obstacles to maintaining the privacy of hospitalized children and adolescents are a tolerant attitude towards gossiping, a lack of education about patient privacy and insufficient information about patient’s rights regulations and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Conclusion: A nurse’s knowledge about the provision of patient confidentiality affects their privacy practices. For this reason, regular training sessions are recommended in hospitals. (shrink)

Man is a creature with an awareness of existence. One of the most important questions that human beings have been seeking answers to since ancient times is what kind of value they have in terms of being human and what rights and responsibilities they have in relation to this. The term “human rights” is one of the modern concepts that emerged in direct connection with this process of inquiry. The concept of human rights has a political, secular framework of meaning (...) in terms of its development. However, human rights are being discussed in a wide field of meaning, which includes many philosophical, moral, and theological dimensions. In this study, the concept of human rights is analyzed in terms of God-human relationship. The theological framework of human rights in the Qur'ān is drawn on the basis of mīsāq (the covenant) between God and man. As a requirement of the mīsāq, Allah has entrusted man with a trust, appointed him as a caliph and honored him with it. The nature of this honor is the duty to make Godʾs laws prevail on earth, and for this purpose, the earth has been given to manʾs service. After man has taken his place on the stage of existence in this way, manʾs rights have two dimensions. The first is the rights that human beings have in the worldly-social context in terms of being human. The concept of human rights, as conceptualized by Western societies, is directly related to this dimension. In the second dimension, human rights have a religious-spiritual content as the rights that arise when the relationship/obligation of man with God is in question. These rights, which can also be expressed as the theological dimension of human rights debates, are rights related to the divine commandment. From a religious and spiritual point of view, human rights are related to having knowledge about the matters that one is obliged to do, being able to do them (istiṭāat), acting with free will, and being rewarded and punished for all these. In this study, the theological foundations of human rights are discussed. In this respect, it is aimed to overcome the limitations caused by grounding the concept of human rights from a secular perspective and present a more holistic and comprehensive metaphysical grounding of human rights. (shrink)

After the publication of Wahrheit und Methode in 1960, Hans-Georg Gadamer, a celebrated student of Martin Heidegger, received rapidly a worldwide response for his intellectual genius by fusing different philosophical horizons into a coherent and rational perspective which he calls ‘philosophical hermeneutics.’ In his attempt to construct philosophical hermeneutics, Gadamer criticizes historicism, romantic hermeneutics and modern subjectivism since they disregard ontological structure of historical understanding. By claiming that prejudgment (or fore-understanding) is the basis for a genuine understanding, he contends that (...) we can overcome false prejudgment only by having recourse to the subject matter of the texts and by understanding texts on the model of dialogue which happens between the partners questioning themselves on the basis of a subject (sache). For him, understanding oneself and others happens as an event of dialogue simply because understanding takes place within the world of language. Language gets concretized and temporalized by the give and take of words. In other words, language is not a mere system of signs, but rather is uncoveredness of beings and the way within which human Dasein realizes himself. Since historical tradition which supports every event of understanding discloses itself only within language and language is a matter of sharing and participating, understanding is historical and temporal. Here the words “historicity” and “temporality” do not refer merely to “being in the history and time.” This is to approach the event of understanding from chronological and universal notion of time. Historicity and temporality are basically the distinctiveness of disclosedness of beings. Philosophical thoughts, scientific theses, trends which effect the course of history constitute the historicity of understanding by creating a sort of discontinuity in the continuity of history. Hence historicity is the basis for the formation of fore understanding and prejudgment. Philosophical hermeneutics tries to show how the continuity of history and traditions occurs through discontinuity (historicity) of understanding. (shrink)

In the Phenomenology of Spirit, chapter IV, Hegel attempts to show how consciousness becomes self-consciousness. Self-consciousness manifests itself both as the ground on which it makes its object opposite to itself, and as a higher truth by demolishing the otherness of its object in order to preserve it for self-consciousness. Since it presupposes itself as the inner truth (or ground) it realizes itself both as the origin and the aim of desire. In other words, by virtue of presupposing its identity (...) in its dissolution, self-consciousness desires to re-constitute the unity with itself. Therefore, it grasps everything else as a negative object of desire in advance. That is to say, its appearance seems to be an ‘obstacle’ before its satisfaction. However, through experience of negating, self-consciousness learns that its object is also a ‘means’ (i.e., has truth or positive aspect) for its end point. It realizes this latter aspect of its object especially when it is faced with another self-consciousness. At this level, self-consciousness comes to see that there is a counter-balance of opposing powers between itself and the other self-consciousness. This counter-balance leads both self-consciousness to a mutual recognition and, then satisfaction of mutual desires. Therefore, since both the origin and the aim of desire is self-consciousness itself, it (self-consciousness) grasps itself as the positive (real) object of desire and then discerns in the mutual recognition the positive aspect of another which was taken as a negative element before. The satisfaction of desire begins with realizing this positive aspect of another self-consciousness. (shrink)

Globalization process through which our individual and societal relations turn out to be parts of world-wide network of power relations has transformed the meaning of the notion ‘dialogue’ dramatically. For discerning better this dramatic transformation, we should focus on the historical meanings of the notion ‘dialogue’. In ancient philosophical texts, such as Plato’s works, dialogue appears to have two different dimensions: 1) conversation of human soul with itself; 2) conversation between human beings toward a common purpose. In each case, this (...) notion refers basically to incompleteness and shortcomings of human knowledge and intellect regarding universal truth. Upon this basis, it signifies that ‘having a purposeful conversation with others’ is being on the way toward universal truth. (shrink)

There are many narrations about the Stories of the Prophets in basic hadith, tafsir and historical sources. In addition to the Qur'an, some information about the stories of the prophets is contained in the Torah and the Bible. The stories of the Prophet were known to Jews and Christians before the advent of Islam. Even the Arabs of the jahiliyyah period had some knowledge about the parables. When the revelation about the stories of the Prophet was revealed, the polytheists were (...) extremely disturbed by it and "esâtîru'l-evvelîn" was used to describe these stories as the tales of the past tribes. Apart from the verses in the Qur'an about the stories of the Prophet, both the hadiths in the hadith sources and the narrations in the historical sources, some of this information was authentic information, while some of it consisted of fabricated information. Among these narrations, there are weak narrations such as Isrâiliyyât, as well as sound ones. It is important how the authors who wrote the works of Kasasu'l-Enbiyâ were affected by the hadiths in the main sources and whether they included these narrations in their works. Therefore, in this study, some hadiths related to the Stories of the Prophets in the Kitâbu'l-Anbiyâ section of Sahîhu'l-Bukhârî, which is one of the most important hadith works and accepted as the most reliable book after the Qur'an, were tried to be examined. In particular, some narrations that the authors of Kasasu'l-Enbiyâ's works were not included in their works, although they were mentioned in Sahîhu'l-Bukhârî, were discussed. In fact, there are many hadiths related to the subject in Sahihu'l-Bukhari. However, in this study, six narrations that were not mentioned by the authors of history, tafsir and Kasasu'l-Anbiya were mentioned. While referring to the aforementioned narrations, no analysis of the hadiths was made in order not to go beyond the scope of the subject and not to exceed the limits of the study. The reasons why these narrations are not references in the Kasasu'l-Anbiya literature are emphasized. Thus, these narrations, which are not mentioned in Kasasu'l-Enbiya's works but are mentioned in the Kitabu'l-Anbiyâ section of Sahîhu'l-Bukhârî, are examined and their source status for the stories of the Prophet is examined. (shrink)

After Einstein presented his “special theory of relativity” with its marvelous principles, “principle of relativity” and “the constant speed of light”, it led to bizarre implications, such as, time dilation, length contraction, energy-mass conversion, and invariance of the space-time interval, we had trouble to understand these stunning consequences with our very classical ontology, which can be regarded as Aristotelian ontology. Thus, both physicists and philosophers have required a new kind of ontology, capable of explaining the new phenomena. Hermann Minkovski proposed (...) that Einstein’s theory implies a “four-dimensional space-time”, instead of a three-dimensional space with time passing over space. Accordingly, the universe consists of four-dimensional stuff such as events. Event ontology goes together with “block universe argument”. Accordingly, the universe looks like a block of ice or a loaf of bread and in which past, present and future take place together. Therefore, block universe argument makes impossible change, motion, and causal relations. Although they sound strange, “simultaneity of relativity”, an outcome of special theory of relativity, supports event ontology and block universe argument. Nevertheless, there are plenty of difficulties come along with the event ontology. In this paper, I will discuss those handicaps of the argument that events are basic components of the universe.Einstein, “özel görelilik kuramını” ve olağanüstü iki ilkesini, “görelilik ilkesini” ve “ışık hızının sabitliğini”, sunduktan sonra, bu kuramın Aristotelesci ontoloji olarak tabir edebileceğimiz klasik ontolojinin kavramlarıyla anlaşılması zor çıktıları oldu. Örneğin, zamanın genişlemesi, uzunluğun kısalması, enerji-kütle değişimi ve uzam-zaman aralığının değişmezliği gibi. Bu nedenle, hem fizikçiler hem de felsefeciler yeni keşfedilen olguları açıklayabilecek yeni bir ontolojinin gerekliliğini duydular. Hermann Minkovski proposed that Einstein’ın kuramının; zamanın, uzamın dışında olduğu üç-boyutlu uzam yerine “dört-boyutlu bir uzam-zaman” içerdiğini iddia etti. Buna göre evren, “olaylar” gibi dört-boyutlu şeylerden ibaret. Olay ontolojisi, “blok evren argümanı” ile uyuşur. Blok evren argümanına göre, evren bir buz kütlesine ya da bir somun ekmeğe benzer. Geçmiş, şimdi ve gelecek bu bloğun içinde aynı anda yer almaktadır. Bu nedenle blok evren argümanı; değişimi, hareketi ve nedensel ilişkileri imkansız kılar. Bu argüman tuhaf görünse de özel görelilik kuramının bir çıktısı olan “göreliliğin eş zamanlılığı”, olay ontolojisini ve blok evren argümanını destekler. Yanı sıra olay ontolojisi pek çok zorluğu da beraberinde getirir. Bu makalede, olayların evrenin temel yapı taşları olduğu iddiasınının zorluklarını tartışacağım. (shrink)