This edited volume offers expert insights into core questions of ethics, education, and religion during what is often termed the "Golden Age" of Islamic culture and intellectual history. It focuses on the scholarly oeuvre of the Muslim philosopher and historian Miskawayh (d. 1030), who is known in the contemporary Muslim world as the "founder of Islamic ethics". Written by internationally renowned scholars in Islamic studies, the chapters trace the significance of ancient Greek, Iranian, and Arabic intellectual traditions, among others, in (...) the Islamic educational discourse. They also show how historical research on concepts of education and ethics specific to religion and culture can help find answers to key issues in contemporary societies. (shrink)

The article pays special attention to the identification of the heuristic potential of theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of spiritual culture, which has a pronounced ethnoregional specificity. In this case, we mean the spiritual culture of the Greater Altai. A value-normative approach and a systematic approach are considered, and other research perspectives are evaluated. The key point is to assess the possibilities of applying an interiorization approach that allows us to present a specific ethno-regional culture in its integrity (...) and unity of meanings. This approach is proposed to be used to study the processes of sacralization and symbolization of human individual and collective existence, occurring through the experience of cultural bearers. This perspective of the study is aimed at conceptualizing experience, but also involves an appeal to traditions, rituals, religion and mythology. However, their analysis is carried out precisely through an assessment of experience. The main methodology of the research is related to the need to present the ethnoregional culture of the Greater Altai in its value-semantic and holistic development. The main results of the study are the following provisions formulated in the article: 1) the problematization of the study of ethnoregional culture unfolds in the direction of its value-semantic reception, which implies the use of an appropriate angle of study; 2) the specificity of ethnoregional culture is formed not only in the ratio of its traditional values and norms, but also in establishing the foundations of its integrity and consistency, therefore, for analysis, such an approach is important, which allows you to reveal these points; 3) to assess the identity of culture, its systemic integrity, it is necessary to use an interiorization approach aimed at identifying the trinity of God - World - Man in the spiritual culture of the Greater Altai; 4) the social and existential experience of cultural bearers, and not only, for example, religion and mythology, should be the subject of research within the framework of the proposed interiorization the approach. (shrink)

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings. Artificial intelligence can be both a blessing and a curse, and potentially a double-edged sword if not carefully wielded. While it holds massive potential benefits to humans—particularly in healthcare by assisting in treatment of diseases, surgeries, record keeping, and easing the lives of both patients and doctors, its misuse has potential for harm through impact of biases, unemployment, breaches of (...) privacy, and lack of accountability to mention a few. In this article, we discuss the fourth industrial revolution, through a focus on the core of this phenomenon, artificial intelligence. We outline what the fourth industrial revolution is, its basis around AI, and how this infiltrates human lives and society, akin to a transcendence. We focus on the potential dangers of AI and the ethical concerns it brings about particularly in developing countries in general and conflict zones in particular, and we offer potential solutions to such dangers. While we acknowledge the importance and potential of AI, we also call for cautious reservations before plunging straight into the exciting world of the future, one which we long have heard of only in science fiction movies. (shrink)

This article addresses a problematic interpretation of African and Indian decolonial political theory, arguing it understates the positive effects anticolonial ideas have had on society and scientific efforts to understand and produce knowledge about it. Another problem is its reliance on the concept of “Western” theory, which presumes genealogical purity. Our response offers creolization as an alternative model for decolonizing political theory and uses the term “Euromodern” instead. It then explores how creolization is at the heart of the ideas of (...) intellectuals considered most paradigmatic of Western thought, and demonstrates the influence of Afro-Islamic thought on them. Subsequently, we rebut the authors’ claim that Fanon’s thought has failed to generate new methods for studying postcolonial reality and extend their analysis of Indian society beyond the frames forged by Gandhi and Spivak. Finally, we conclude by discussing Muhammad Iqbal, a uniquely creolizing and forward-looking decolonial figure from the Afro-Muslim world. (shrink)

(2013). GENERAL ISSUE 2013. Angelaki: Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 1-2.

Background: Concerns have been expressed regarding the adequacy of ethics review systems in developing countries. Limited data are available regarding the structural and functional status of Research Ethics Committees (RECs) in the Middle East. The purpose of this study was to survey the existing RECs in Egypt to better understand their functioning status, perceived resource needs, and challenges. Methods: We distributed a self-administered survey tool to Egyptian RECs to collect information on the following domains: general characteristics of the REC, membership (...) composition, ethics training, workload, process of ethics review, perceived challenges to effective functioning, and financial and material resources. We used basic descriptive statistics to evaluate the quantitative data. Results: We obtained responses from 67% (12/18) of the identified RECs. Most RECs (10/12) have standard operating procedures and many (7/12) have established policies to manage conflicts of interests. The average membership was 10.3 with a range from 7-19. The predominant member type was physicians (69.5% of all of the REC members) with little lay representation (13.7%). Most RECs met at least once/month and the average number of protocols reviewed per meeting was 3.8 with a range from 1-10. Almost three-quarters of the members from all of the 12 RECs indicated they received some formal training in ethics. Regarding resources, roughly half of the RECs have dedicated capital equipment (e.g., meeting room, computers, office furniture, etc); none of the RECs have a formal operating budget. Perceived challenges included the absence of national research ethics guidelines and national standards for RECs and lack of ongoing training of its members in research ethics. Conclusion: Our study documents several areas of strengths and areas for improvements in the operations of Egyptian RECs. Regarding strengths, many of the existing RECs meet frequently, have a majority of members with prior training in research ethics, and have written policies. Regarding areas for improvements, many RECs should strive for a more diverse membership and should receive more financial resources and administrative support personnel. We recommend that RECs include more individuals from the community and develop a continuing educational program for its members. Institutional officials should be aware of the resource capacity needs of their RECs. (shrink)

In this article, the co-editors of the corporate responsibility: quantitative issues section of the journal provide an overview of the quantitative CSR field and offer some new perspectives on where the field is going. They highlight key issues in developing impactful, theory-driven, and ethically grounded research and call for research that examines complex problems facing businesses and the society (e.g., big data and artificial intelligence, political polarization, and the role of CSR in generating social impact). By examining topics that are (...) under-researched, forward-looking, and socially oriented, scholars can expand the boundary of CSR’s substantive domain and produce research that helps businesses act in a long-term, socially responsible way in this quickly evolving, turbulent environment. They also discuss ways to enhance the methodological rigor of quantitative CSR research and encourage scholars to employ cutting-edge, innovative methods to shed light on the micro-level mechanisms of CSR and reveal patterns and relationships hidden in unstructured big data. (shrink)

In this research, the authors present a model that demonstrates that motivating managers to change unpopular or irresponsible corporate behavior may be required when the stakeholders desire such a change. Using agency theory, they then test part of the model and demonstrate why it may be necessary for an organized protest to impact on share prices before managers choose to change the behavior. Investors' reactions to announcements of product boycotts and stock divestitures made over the 23-year period 1969-1991 were examined. (...) Announcements about boycotts were associated with significant negative market reactions, whereas divestiture announcements resulted in no significant market responses. From a pure stock market perspective, boycotts appear to be a more effective tool in influencing managers to change a company's behavior. (shrink)

Transdisciplinary research knits together knowledge from diverse epistemic communities in addressing social-environmental challenges, such as biodiversity loss, climate crises, food insecurity, and public health. This paper reflects on the roles of philosophy of science in transdisciplinary research while focusing on Indigenous and other subaltern forms of knowledge. We offer a critical assessment of demarcationist approaches in philosophy of science and outline a constructive alternative of transdisciplinary philosophy of science. While a demarcationist focus obscures the complex relations between epistemic communities, transdisciplinary (...) philosophy of science provides resources for meeting epistemic and political challenges of collaborative knowledge production. (shrink)

Any description of the emergence and evolution of different types of meaning processes (semiosis, sensu C.S.Peirce) in living systems must be supported by a theoretical framework which makes it possible to understand the nature and dynamics of such processes. Here we propose that the emergence of semiosis of different kinds can be understood as resulting from fundamental interactions in a triadically-organized hierarchical process. To grasp these interactions, we develop a model grounded on Stanley Salthe's hierarchical structuralism. This model can be (...) applied to establish, in a general sense, a set of theoretical constraints for explaining the instantiation of different kinds of meaning processes (iconic, indexical, symbolic) in semiotic systems. We use it to model a semiotic process in the immune system, namely, B-cell activation, in order to offer insights into the heuristic role it can play in the development of explanations for specific semiotic processes. (shrink)

Background Nurses play an integral role in the care of children hospitalised with a serious illness. Although information about diagnostics, treatments, and prognosis are generally conveyed to parents and caregivers of seriously ill children by physicians, nurses spend a significant amount of time at the child’s bedside and have an acknowledged role in helping patients and families understand the information that they have been given by a doctor. Hence, the ethical role of the nurse in truth disclosure to children is (...) worth exploring. Methods A systematic academic database and grey literature search strategy was conducted using CINAHL, Medline Psych Info, and Google Scholar. Keywords used included truth, children, nurse, disclosure, serious illness, and communication. A total of 17 publications of varying types were included in the final data set. Ethical Considerations As this was a review of the literature, there were no direct human participants. Empirical studies included in the review had received ethics approval. Results Of the 17 articles included in the review, only one directly reported on the experiences of nurses asked to withhold the truth from patients. Empirical studies were limited to HIV-positive children and children diagnosed with cancer and the dying child. Conclusion A paucity of literature exploring the experiences, attitudes, and beliefs of nurses with regard to truth-telling to seriously ill children is evident. Little consideration has been given to the role nurses play in communicating medical information to children in a hospital setting. The 17 articles included in the review focused on cancer, and HIV, diagnosis, and end-of-life care. Further research should be undertaken to explore the experiences and attitudes of nurses to clinical information sharing to children hospitalised with a wide range of serious illnesses and in diverse clinical scenarios. (shrink)

Instagram serves as a powerful instrument for youth socialization, self-expression, and self-performance in visual online spaces. Using social semiotics and multimodal discourse analysis, this study examines the potential ideological meanings and implications of selfie-shooting and sharing on Instagram on young adults’ self-concept. A corpus of 110 questionnaires, including almost 85 captioned selfies, was surveyed as multimodal utterances. In doing so, this study argues that selfies can create young adults’ split-selves while constructing their multiple personas in visual online spaces. This marks (...) the significance of viewing selfie-creators not only as authors of their selfies, but rather as viewers of a three-fold self: an ideal-self, a projected-self, and an internal-self, to negotiate social and power relationships, while (re)positioning observer-observed roles. This study claims originality in unraveling how young adults use visual and textual mediated communication to represent and perform their split-selves. It suggests that selfie-shooting-sharing has become a key self-performance tactic and behavior in online cultures. Therefore, young adults deploy selfies and captions to posit a redefinition of certain social values, such as aesthetics and freedom, while deploying their selfies and captions. Challenging certain orthodox social allegiances, they conceive wildness, messiness, and exuberance as emerging neo-aesthetics components of appeal. This study contributes to the literature on personal visual communication with insights on how Egyptian young adults perform their self-concept via the semiotic practice of selfie-shooting-sharing. (shrink)

Due to the advance computer technology, the use of probability distributions has been raised up to solve the real life problems. These applications are found in reliability engineering, computer sciences, economics, psychology, survival analysis, and some others. This study offers a new probability model called Marshall–Olkin Extended Gumbel Type-II which can model various shapes of the failure rate function. The proposed distribution is capable to model increasing, decreasing, reverse J-shaped, and upside down bathtub shapes of the failure rate function. Various (...) statistical properties of the proposed distribution are derived such as alternate expressions for the density and distribution function, special cases of MOEGT-II distribution, quantile function, Lorenz curve, and Bonferroni curve. Estimation of the unknown parameters is carried out by the method of maximum likelihood. A simulation study is conducted using three different iterative methods with different samples of sizes n. The usefulness and potentiality of the MOEGT-II distribution have been shown using three real life data sets. The MOEGT-II distribution has been demonstrated as better fit than Exponentiated Gumbel Type-II, Marshall–Olkin Gumbel Type-II, Gumbel Type-II, Marshall–Olkin–Frechet, Frechet, Burr III, Log Logistic, Beta Inverse Weibull, and Kumaraswamy Inverse Weibull distributions. (shrink)

Scientists investigating the thermal properties of black holes rely heavily on theoretical and non-empirical tools, such as mathematical derivations, analogue experiments and thought experiments. Although the use of mathematical derivations and analogue experiments in the context of black hole physics has recently received a great deal of attention among philosophers of science, the use of thought experiments (TEs) in that context has been almost completely neglected. In this paper, we will start filling this gap by systematically analyzing the epistemic role (...) of the two TEs that gave birth to black hole thermodynamics, namely Wheeler’s demon and Geroch’s engine. We will argue that the two main epistemic functions of these TEs are to reveal and resolve inconsistencies, in line with El Skaf’s (Probing theoretical statements with thought experiments. Synthese 199:6119–6147, 2021) approach to TEs. We will, then, go beyond El Skaf’s approach by stressing an important difference between the strategies employed to assess the reliability of each epistemic function. (shrink)

Essays on The Soul's Logical Life in the Work of Wolfgang Giegerich: Psychology as the Discipline of Interiority is the second collection of essays dedicated to the study and application of Psychology as the Discipline of Interiority - a new 'wave' within Analytical Psychology which pushes off from the work of C. G. Jung and James Hillman. Reflecting upon the notion of psychology developed by German psychoanalyst Wolfgang Giegerich, whose Hegelian turn sheds light on the notion of soul, or the (...) objective psyche, and its inner logic and 'thought', forming a radical new basis from which to ground a modern psychology with soul. The book explores the theme of "the soul's logical life" as it displays itself in various modern phenomena, from overwhelming anxiety, cryptocurrency, the dreams of Japanese college students, and contemporary psychoanalysis, to myth, music, social movements, and the question and relevance of truth in psychology and consciousness. The authors, comprising clinical psychologists, teachers, Jungian analysts, and international scholars, aim to reveal and convey the dialectical inner workings and speculative logic of the modern soul. Essays on The Soul's Logical Life in the Work of Wolfgang Giegerich: Psychology as the Discipline of Interiority will be essential reading for depth and clinical psychologists, Jungian psychoanalysts, and academics and students of post-Jungian studies, and for all those interested in what it means to think in the highly sophisticated and technological world of the twenty-first century. (shrink)

This article intends to show that the defense of “understanding” as one of the major goals of science education can be grounded on an anti-reductionist perspective on testimony as a source of knowledge. To do so, we critically revisit the discussion between Harvey Siegel and Alvin Goldman about the goals of science education, especially where it involves arguments based on the epistemology of testimony. Subsequently, we come back to a discussion between Charbel N. El-Hani and Eduardo Mortimer, on the one (...) hand, and Michael Hoffmann, on the other, striving to strengthen the claim that rather than students’ belief change, understanding should have epistemic priority as a goal of science education. Based on these two lines of discussion, we conclude that the reliance on testimony as a source of knowledge is necessary to the development of a more large and comprehensive scientific understanding by science students. (shrink)

In this paper, a complex non- linear programming problem with the two parts (real and imaginary) is considered. The efficient and proper efficient solutions in terms of optimal solutions of related appropriate scalar optimization problems are characterized. Also, the Kuhn-Tuckers' conditions for efficiency and proper efficiency are derived. This paper is divided into two independently parts: The first provides the relationships between the optimal solutions of a complex single-objective optimization problem and solutions of two related real programming problems. The second (...) part is concerned with the theory of a multi-objective optimization in complex space. (shrink)

Guillermo Lariguet, La urdimbre de la razón. Ensayos de filosofía teórica y práctica contemporáneos, Mar del Plata, Kazak Ediciones, 2017, 258 pp., ISBN 978-2673-5-2.

Seder ha-teshuvah -- Marpe la-nefesh -- Teshuvah me-ḥayim.

This essay proposes an interpretation of Don DeLillo’s Falling Man based on a combination of textual analysis and contemporary theoretical approaches to the specific questions of trauma, grief, and...

The Dialectical Forge: Juridical Disputation and the Evolution of Islamic Law. By Walter Edward Young. Logic, Argumentation and Reasoning, vol. 9. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2017. Pp. xiv + 643. $149.99, €124.79 ; $109, €101.14.

The Formation of Islamic Hermeneutics: How Sunni Legal Theorists Imagined a Revealed Law. By David Vishanoff. American Oriental Series, vol. 93. New Haven: American Oriental Society, 2011. Pp. xxi + 318. $46.

In this article, we draw upon the Conceptual Profile Theory to discuss the negotiation of meanings related to the energy concept in an 11th grade physics classroom. This theory is based on the heterogeneity of verbal thinking, that is, on the idea that any individual or society does not represent concepts in a single way. According to this perspective, the processes of conceptualization consist of the use of a repertoire of different socially stabilized signifiers, adjusted to the context in which (...) they occur. We start by proposing zones of a conceptual profile model for energy, each zone being characterized by its own commitments and identifiable by certain modes of talking about energy. Based on classroom evidence, we claim that teachers and students negotiate meanings that interpenetrate the domains of everyday and scientific knowledge. Being inevitable and necessary, this heterogeneity of conceptual thinking needs to be considered in teaching design in order to allow its awareness on the part of the students. We argue that students’ conceptual development goals should be considered in terms of general goals of science education, which points to the need of overcoming the encapsulation of scientific school knowledge. We show that the Conceptual Profile Theory provides a basis for science education that can promote the crossing of cultural boundaries, seeking relations between science and the spheres of everyday life. (shrink)

The current research aims at improving the skills of producing digital stories using the tools of generative artificial intelligence Chat GPT and Google Bard, which are necessary for female student teachers’ specialization: Kindergarten. The current research has used the descriptive approach and the experimental approach with a quasi-experimental design through a design based on one group and comparing the differences between the pre and post-evaluation. The study sample was randomly selected from female students teachers specializing in kindergarten, and their number (...) reached (25) students. A list of producing digital stories standards was prepared and controlled, and a graded performance rating scale was prepared to evaluate the skills of producing digital stories among female student teachers specializing in kindergarten. The results indicate the effectiveness of using the generative AI tools in improving digital stories production skills according to the criteria that were built in the current research. (shrink)

As soon as Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi (the Baal HaTanya) formulated his method of self-mastery, more than two hundred years ago, it spread like wildfire. Within a few years, thousands had knocked on his door to get "therapy" with individually tailored advice for various emotional challenges. The Tanya was compiled over a twenty-year period to present a comprehensive framework that would serve as a substitute for a face-to-face encounter and last for generations to come. Rabbi Shneur Zalman's method sees (...) a person as locked in a lifelong internal struggle. The mission of life is to win the struggle in the present moment. This optimistic attitude toward the human psyche - and the claim that at any moment one can be victorious in the day's struggles - has captivated hearts for centuries and is here available to the modern reader in a down-to- earth presentation. Winning Every Moment enables the reader to develop an intimate spiritual conversation with the great master of Jewish psychology. Through this soul conversation with the Baal HaTanya, you are invited to know yourself and your inner powers. (shrink)

In this commentary, we point to guidelines for performing human neuroimaging studies and their reporting in microbiota-gut-brain articles. Moreover, we provide a view on interpretational issues in MGB studies, with a specific focus on gut microbiota–derived metabolites. Thus, extending the target article, we provide recommendations to the field to increase reproducibility and relevance of this type of MGB study.

Background Workplace silence behavior is a social collective phenomenon. It refers to nurses choosing to withhold their ideas, opinions and concerns about critical issues in their workplace. Workplace silence behavior poses a threat to organizational ethics and success. It also has adverse effects on the performance of nurses in health organizations. Underlying nursing causes of silence behaviors could be related to individual, social and organizational attributes in health care settings. Objectives The study aimed to develop a new Egyptian validation scale (...) for measuring nursing motives of workplace silence behavior and identify consequences of workplace silence behavior on nurses. Methods A cross-sectional correlational study was implemented using questionnaires on workplace silence behavior, nursing motives and nurses' consequences, collected from 332 nurses working in critical and toxicology care settings of Alexandria Main University Hospital. Results Egyptian scale was shown to be a good fit model of exploratory (36 nursing motives emerged in six dimensions with total variance of 73.3%) and confirmatory factor analysis tests (X2 = 1381.47, NNFI =0. 90, CFI = 0.91, RMSEA = 0.057). It also had high reliability tests with coefficient of alpha (0.85), Pearson (0.75) and Kendall coefficient of 0.72. High level of workplace silence behaviors showed a negative association with organizational dis-identification, fair citizenship behavior, and fair nurses' performance and declined reporting of patient adverse events. It also appeared to be in a positive association with higher levels of cynicism. Conclusion The Egyptian scale was proved to be reliable and valid for measuring the underlying nursing causes of silence behaviors in the hospital workplace. Measuring nursing motives of workplace silence behaviors will help nurse managers to reduce negative outcomes of workplace silence behaviors and improve organizational outcomes. (shrink)

When is conceptual change so significant that we should talk about a new theory, not a new version of the same theory? We address this problem here, starting from Gould’s discussion of the individuation of the Darwinian theory. He locates his position between two extremes: ‘minimalist’—a theory should be individuated merely by its insertion in a historical lineage—and ‘maximalist’—exhaustive lists of necessary and sufficient conditions are required for individuation. He imputes the minimalist position to Hull and attempts a reductio : (...) this position leads us to give the same ‘name’ to contradictory theories. Gould’s ‘structuralist’ position requires both ‘conceptual continuity’ and descent for individuation. Hull’s attempt to assimilate into his general selectionist framework Kuhn’s notion of ‘exemplar’ and the ‘semantic’ view of the structure of scientific theories can be used to counter Gould’s reductio , and also to integrate structuralist and population thinking about conceptual change. (shrink)

Stemming from the realization of the importance of the role of explanation in the science classroom, the Next Generation Science Standards call for appropriately supporting students to learn science, argue from evidence, and provide explanations. Despite the ongoing emphasis on explanations in the science classroom, there seems to be no well-articulated framework that supports students in constructing adequate scientific explanations, or that helps teachers assess student explanations. Our motivation for this article is twofold: First, we think that the ways in (...) which researchers in science education have studied scientific explanation are, at best, leaves much to be desired and, at worst, simply incomplete. Second, we believe that research about the teaching and learning of explanation in science classrooms must be guided by explicit models or frameworks that specify elements involved in constructing explanations particularly applicable to science. More importantly, we think that the development of such models or guidelines should be based on theoretical and philosophical foundations. In order to develop these frameworks or guidelines, we first outline and clarify models of scientific explanation developed by philosophers of science over the last few decades. In the second section of this article, we present a more recent philosophical work on scientific explanation, the pragmatic approach to studying scientific explanations. This approach suggests a toolbox for analyzing scientists’ scientific explanations, which provides a useful instrument to science education. In Section 3, we discuss the ways by which the previous two sections are useful in developing a K-12 scientific explanation schema. Implications for future research on students’ explanations are discussed. (shrink)

This article attempts to study cost minimizing multi-objective fractional solid transportation problem with fuzzy cost coefficients c ˜ i j k r {\tilde{c}}_{ijk}^{r}, fuzzy supply quantities a ˜ i {\tilde{a}}_{i}, fuzzy demands b ˜ j {\tilde{b}}_{j}, and/or fuzzy conveyances e ˜ k {\tilde{e}}_{k}. The fuzzy efficient concept is introduced in which the crisp efficient solution is extended. A necessary and sufficient condition for the solution is established. Fuzzy geometric programming approach is applied to solve the crisp problem by defining membership (...) function so as to obtain the optimal compromise solution of a multi-objective two-stage problem. A linear membership function for the objective function is defined. The stability set of the first kind is defined and determined. A numerical example is given for illustration and to check the validity of the proposed approach. (shrink)

Following the same procedure that allowed Shcrödinger to construct the (canonical) coherent states in the first place, we investigate on a possible classical interpretation of the deformed harmonic oscillator. We find that, these oscillator, also called q-oscillators, can be interpreted as quantum versions of classical forced oscillators with a modified q-dependant frequency.