This article proposes an analysis of changes implemented during Malaysia's Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's administration (20032003), which displayed bias against changes and introduced schemes to justify the systems it upheld. Transmutations wrought during Abdullah's tenure may have been neither substantial nor totalizing, but within the conservative paradigm which had long gripped national politics, Abdullah's deviations were significant nevertheless.

The aim of present paper is to introduce the concept of ‘expressive perception’ in Ernst Cassirer’s philosophical mythology. Having Cited Dorothy Emmet’s methodological objection, the author, by recalling Kantian aspect of Cassirer’s thought and referring to the concept of ‘expressive perception’, would make an attempt to reply on his part: according to Cassirer, this level of perceptive experience is the origin of the mythical form of thinking as a whole and, at the same time, is the original and irreducible altogether. (...) Thus, taking ‘mythical thought’ as an independent form of thinking, beside the ‘critical-empirical’ form of thinking, is, for one thing, completely cogent; for another, due to its dependency upon expressive form of perception, mythical thought would never be quite omitted, rather, keep living latently beneath the skin of mental life. In addition, author explains how much Cassirer owes, regarding to the concept of ‘expressive form of perception’, to Max Scheler. Avoiding to elaborate on Scheler’s detailed argument, Cassirer relies strongly on the consequences Scheler draws from his considerations in his work ‘Wesen und Formen der Sympathie’. Restating Scheler’s argument briefly should help in understanding Cassirer’s idea. (shrink)

Les etudes sur Averroes (1126-1198) ont porte jusqu'ici, pour l'essentiel, soit sur un aspect de sa psychologie philosophique, soit sur sa doctrine politique. Le premier type d'etudes se situe dans le prolongement de la reception medievale latine d'Averroes, caracterisee par les controverses suscitees par sa noetique. Le second reflete un courant de la recherche qui a domine l'histoire recente de la philosophie arabe et qui a mis l'accent sur l'etude des rapports entre religion et philosophie. Sans negliger ces deux orientations, (...) ce volume, qui rassemble des contributions de specialistes mondialement reconnus d'Averroes, cherche ... donner une vision plus globale de cet auteur en etudiant toutes les facettes de son oeuvre. Il vise aussi ... reequilibrer l'approche de sa pensee, en insistant sur des aspects peu etudies de celle-ci et qui relevent de la logique, de la philosophie naturelle, de la medecine ou de la methodologie juridique. Les etudes ici rassemblees contribuent ainsi ... jeter une lumiere neuve sur cette figure marquante de la pensee universelle. Les etudes sur Averroes (1126-1198) ont porte jusqu'ici, pour l'essentiel, soit sur un aspect de sa psychologie philosophique, soit sur sa doctrine politique. Le premier type d'etudes se situe dans le prolongement de la reception medievale latine d'Averroes, caracterisee par les controverses suscitees par sa noetique. Le second reflete un courant de la recherche qui a domine l'histoire recente de la philosophie arabe et qui a mis l'accent sur l'etude des rapports entre religion et philosophie. Sans negliger ces deux orientations, ce volume, qui rassemble des contributions de specialistes mondialement reconnus d'Averroes, cherche ... donner une vision plus globale de cet auteur en etudiant toutes les facettes de son oeuvre. Il vise aussi ... reequilibrer l'approche de sa pensee, en insistant sur des aspects peu etudies de celle-ci et qui relevent de la logique, de la philosophie naturelle, de la medecine ou de la methodologie juridique. Les etudes ici rassemblees contribuent ainsi ... jeter une lumiere neuve sur cette figure marquante de la pensee universelle. (shrink)

The study aims to identify the degree of possession of government school principals in the Karbala Governorate Education Directorate of artificial intelligence applications. The descriptive analytical approach was used. To achieve the study objectives, a questionnaire which contained (34) items was developed, divided into five dimensions. The study community was (114) male and female principals. The study sample consisted of (94) male and female managers, and the sample was selected randomly. The results of the study showed that the degree of (...) possession of government school principals in the Karbala Governorate Education Directorate of artificial intelligence applications was average. The results of the study also showed that there were no statistically significant differences at the significance level (α=0.05) attributed to the study variables (gender, academic qualification, experience in artificial intelligence techniques). In light of the study results, the researchers recommended several recommendations, most notably: paying attention to training courses in the field of information and communications technology, especially in the subject of artificial intelligence, by organizing meetings and workshops with the aim of raising awareness among individuals and society about the importance of artificial intelligence, encouraging the Iraqi Ministry of Education to its teaching staff and providing them with incentives to employ artificial intelligence applications in their administrative and educational work, introducing artificial intelligence applications into curricula and courses and paying attention to them, and providing specialized teaching staff in this field. (shrink)

The adoption of halal practices in the food and beverage industry is crucial for ensuring compliance with Islamic principles and meeting the growing demand for halal products. This qualitative study explores the perspectives of food and beverage producers and halal authorities on the implementation of halal practices in supply chain management. Focus group discussions were conducted with nine industry participants under the auspices of the Indonesian Institute for the Study of Food, Drugs, and Cosmetics (LPPOM). The discussions aimed to identify (...) behaviors and actions in adopting halal practices based on personal perceptions. The focus group discussions were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed to identify patterns and classify ideas into categories. The findings reveal nine key indicators of halal practice adoption behavior, including purchasing halal raw materials, managing warehouse storage areas, maintaining personal hygiene, managing the cleanliness of facilities and equipment, controlling the sourcing of halal materials, controlling the production process, disseminating halal information, conducting internal audits, and managing financial transactions. The study highlights the importance of these practices in preventing contamination, ensuring strict production processes, promoting effective communication, and maintaining financial transparency. The insights gained from this exploratory research contribute to a deeper understanding of halal practice adoption behavior and support the development of conceptual models for halal supply chain management in the food and beverage industry. (shrink)

This Book Is An In-Depth Study Of Buddhist Philosophy In India And Tibet. The Concentration Is On Ontology/Epistemology And, To A Somewhat Lesser Extent, Soteriology. It Is Based On The Writings Of The Buddhist Philosophers Themselves, From The Unknown Authors Of The Pali `Abhidhamma' Books Down To The Present Dalai Lama Of Tibet. It Takes Into Consideration The Work Of Many Twentieth Century Scholars Of Buddhism In Order To Bring Our Knowledge Of Buddhist Philosophy Up-To-Date. An Exhaustive Index (And Glossary) (...) Has Been Prepared In Order To Help The Reader With The Technical Terms Of Buddhist Philosophy.;;The Two Parts And Fourteen Chapters Of The Book Are As Follows: Part I (India): Ch.I: The Theravada. Ch.Ii: The Sarvastivada. Ch.Iii: The Madhyamaka (1) The Prasangikas Nagarjuna And Candrakirti. Ch.Iv: The Madhyamaka (2) The Prasangikas Aryadeva And Santideva. Ch.V: The Madhyamaka (3) The Svatantrikas. Ch.Vi: The Yogacara (1) Two Yogacara Sutras And Asanga And Vasubandhu. Ch.Vii: The Yogacara (2) Dignaga And Dharmakirti. Ch.Viii: The Yogacara (3) Santarakshita And Kamalasila. Ch.Ix: The `Tathagata-Garbha'. Part Ii (Tibet): Ch.X: The Vajrayana, General Features. Ch.Xi: The Nyingmapa. Ch.Xii: The Sakyapa. Ch.Xiii: The Kagyupa. Ch.Xiv: The Gelugpa. (shrink)

The release of over 6,000 genetically modified mosquitoes (GMM) into uninhabited Malaysian forests in 2010 was a frantic step on the part of the Malaysian government to combat the spread of dengue fever. The field trial was designed to control and reduce the dengue vector by producing offspring that die in the early developmental stage, thus decreasing the local Aedes aegypti population below the dengue transmission threshold. However, the GMM trials were discontinued in Malaysia despite being technologically feasible. The lack (...) of systematic studies in terms of cost-benefit analysis, questionable research efficacy and safety-related concerns might have contributed to the termination of the field trial. Hence, this research aims to evaluate the feasibility of GMM release in Malaysia by using a holistic approach based on an Islamic ethical-legal assessment under the maslahah-mafsadah (benefit-risk) concept. Three main strategies based on the maslahah-mafsadah concept approach have been applied: 1) an evidence-based approach, 2) an impact-based approach and, 3) a priority approach. The analysis concluded that GMM could be categorised as zanniyyah (probable). GMM is a promising alternative for dengue control, but many issues must be addressed before its widespread adoption. (shrink)

This paper explores the representation of Laji’een and Muhajireen in Jordan News Agency. It uses the headlines of a 2.5 million word corpus of Arabic news articles in a time span of 5 years from 2012 to 2016. Chronologically analyzing the headlines shows a change in the representation of and attitudes towards refugees and migrants over the investigated period. The analysis of the headlines shows that 2012 starts with providing the assistance to the refugees then at a later stage of (...) 2012 and in 2013 and 2014, the language is shifted to calling for assistance to the country to contribute to solving the problem. In 2015, the language is changed to be more alerting about the scarce in funding. In 2016, the headlines have changed the focus to Europe due to the migration of the refugees. This motivates the National News Agency of Jordan to highlight the suffering of Europe because of the refugees despite having the capacity and resources to host the migrant refugees. The paper concludes that language in general, and the language of media in particular can change the attitudes of people and governments toward critical issues and phenomena like migration and asylum. (shrink)

What is the function of logic in al-Kindī's corpus? What kind of relation does it have with mathematics? This article tackles these questions by examining al-Kindī's theory of categories as it was presented in his epistle On the Number of Aristotle's Books, from which we can learn about his special attitude towards Aristotle theory of categories and his interpretation, as well. Al-Kindī treats the Categories as a logical book, but in a manner different from that of the classical Aristotelian tradition. (...) He ascribes a special status to the categories Quantity and Quality, whereas the rest of the categories are thought to be no more than different combinations of these two categories with the category Substance. The discussion will pay special attention to the function of the categories of Quantity and Quality as mediators between logic and mathematics. (shrink)

For most people, a lie would be defined solely as a false statement. However, many philosophers argue that a statement does not need to be false to be considered a lie, what is important is that the speaker believes that the statement is false. In a prototype semantic analysis, there are three elements of a lie, namely factual falsity, belief, and intention (Coleman and Kay, 1981). As in the case of philosophers’ arguments, English, Spanish, Arabic and Hungarian speakers consider belief (...) as the main element of a prototypical lie. By replicating Coleman and Kay’s study of Indonesian speakers, the present paper tries to answer the following research questions. (1) Does the Indonesian word bohong ‘lie’ consist of the Coleman & Kay’s prototype elements? (2) If it does, what is the order of the elements? (3) Do Indonesians interpret the situation in which a lie occurs similarly to speakers of other languages? And (4) how to interpret the results of this experiment from the philosophical perspective? The results reveal that not all elements suggested by Coleman and Kay (1981) are present in lying according to Indonesians and the factuality of the statement is more important to Indonesians than belief. Thus, Indonesians have a perception of a lie that is different from the definitions suggested by the philosophers. (shrink)

There have been recent arguments against the idea that substructural solutions are uniform. The claim is that even if the substructuralist solves the common semantic paradoxes uniformly by targeting Cut or Contraction, with additional machinery, we can construct higher-level paradoxes (e.g., a higher-level Liar, a higher-level Curry, and a meta-validity Curry). These higher-level paradoxes do not use metainferential Cut or Contraction, but rather, higher-level Cuts and higher-level Contractions. These kinds of paradoxes suggest that targeting Cut or Contraction is not enough (...) for solving semantic paradoxes; the substructuralist must target Cut of every level or Contraction of every level to solve the paradoxes. Hence, the substructuralists do not provide as uniform of a solution as they hoped they did. In response, we argue that the substructuralists need not admit these additional machineries. In fact, they are redundant in light of the validity predicate (i.e., there is no gain in terms of expressive power). The validity predicate is powerful enough to creep these paradoxes in the object level. The substructuralist does not need to ascend to metainferences to construct higher-level paradoxes. Moreover, there is a reading available to the substructuralist such that all the higher-level structural rules would collapse to instances of the object-level structural rules (e.g., meta \(_n\) Cut and meta \(_n\) Contraction would become instances of Cut and Contraction). We then address Barrio et al.’s worry that the validity predicate has its shortcomings; the substructuralist cannot internalize some of its metarules. We claim that the validity of metarules can be internalized without the need to strengthen the validity predicate. However, a problem raised by Barrio et al. is still present—the problem of internalizing unwanted instances of Cut in Cut-free approaches. We argue that this internalization problem is not unique to the validity predicate; the same problem is present with other problematic predicates, such as the truth predicate and the provability predicate. (shrink)

Recently, there has been growing interest in the use of ontology as a fundamental tool for representing domain-specific conceptual models to improve the semantics, accuracy, and relevance of domain users’ query results. Although the amount of data has grown steadily over the past decade, much data shares similar characteristics that can be captured by a foundational ontology. In this paper, we show how queries based on a foundational ontology can be evaluated and their performance measured. We also present a Foundational (...) Patterns benchmark to help select the most efficient triple memory and its layout. We evaluate the foundational benchmark with both generated and real datasets for state-of-the-art triple stores. (shrink)

Whilst there have been serious attempts to locate the practice of male circumcision for religious motives in the context of the (respective) religion's narrative and community, the debate, when referring to a clinical context, is often more nuanced. This article will contribute further to the debate by contextualising the Islamic practice of male circumcision within the clinical setting typical of a contemporary hospital. It specifically develops an additional complication; namely, the child has a pre-existing blood disorder. As an approach to (...) contributing to the circumcision debate further, the ethics of a conscientious objection for secular motives towards a religiously-motivated clinical intervention will be explored. Overall, the discussion will provide relevance for such debates within the value-systems of a multi-cultural society. This article replicates several approaches to deconstructing a request for conscientious refusal of non-therapeutic circumcision by a Clinical Ethics Committee (CEC), bringing to light certain contradictions that occur in normatively categorizing motives for performing the circumcision. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Art in Social Studies: Exploring the World and Ourselves with RembrandtIftikhar Ahmad (bio)IntroductionRembrandt’s art lends itself as a fertile resource for teaching and learning social studies. His art not only captures the social studies themes relevant to the Dutch Golden Age, but it also offers a description of human relations transcending temporal and spatial frontiers. Rembrandt is an imaginative storyteller with a keen insight for minute details. His (...) narrative of the culture, society, economy, geography, and contemporary events of seventeenth-century Dutch life is as vivid and perceptive as a historian’s eloquent text. How people lived in community, how the city of Amsterdam functioned, how important religion was to people, how diverse and cosmopolitan the culture was, how interdependent the world was in the seventeenth century, and what the social and civic ideals of the Dutch people were during the Golden Age—Rembrandt’s paintings, etchings, and drawings neatly organize these and other social studies themes into visual messages. More importantly, our appreciation and interpretation of Rembrandt’s work helps us learn about not just Dutch society and culture of four hundred years ago but also about ourselves. The passion, emotions, conflicts, and inspirations of his subjects are essentially human and eternal, arousing empathy in every generation and cross-section of society. In this article I look at Rembrandt’s art for the purpose of teaching and learning social studies in our contemporary interdependent world—a world that is chronologically and geographically distant from the Dutch Golden Age but in many respects shares its enduring values, norms, ideals, pursuits, challenges, and possibilities. To do so, I employ a conceptual lens—the curriculum thematic strands of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS)—to examine Rembrandt’s art in order to explore life and make meaning of the story that is being told about the human condition, and to seek out its relevance to ourselves and [End Page 19] our world in the early twenty-first century. Although Rembrandt’s oeuvre is extensive, including the diverse genres of self-portraits, group portraits, drawings, etchings, landscapes, and religious themes, for our limited purpose I have selected only those works that, in my judgment, correspond with the following seven of the ten thematic curriculum strands of the NCSS:CultureTime, Continuity, and ChangePeople, Places, and EnvironmentIndividual Development and IdentityProduction, Distribution, and ConsumptionGlobal ConnectionsCivic Ideals and PracticesThese thematic curriculum strands are derived from the foundational disciplines of the social sciences and humanities such as anthropology, history, geography, sociology, political science, psychology, economics, philosophy, and law, but they are conceptually interrelated.1 For example, culture is a core concept in anthropology but it is also relevant to Time, Continuity, and Change, which is the main concept in the history discipline. Similarly, culture is relevant to the theme of People, Places, and Environment, which is the central focus of geography. More importantly, since social studies is about human experiences, there is a general consensus among the social studies educators that classroom teachers should draw content knowledge not just from the social sciences as mentioned here but from wide sources “to construct curricular experiences enabling students to actively relate new knowledge to existing understanding.”2 That is to say all fields of knowledge that are related to human civilization and that help in developing students’ skills in reflective thinking, decision making, and problem solving are relevant to social studies education. Those fields also include art. Rembrandt’s art is especially relevant because his themes are universal and the social, political, and economic contexts in which he created his work—globalization, individualism, and free enterprise—are more or less similar to our age.It needs to be mentioned that by looking at Rembrandt’s art from the social studies perspective it is not my intention to strip his work of its aesthetic scope and value. On the contrary, by looking at Rembrandt in the social studies classroom I seek to humanize social studies education itself. That [End Page 20] is to say I wish to step back from the conventional view of social studies to feel free from the bonds of traditionalism and discover, describe, analyze... (shrink)

In the course of human civilization, religion has underpinned the development of values of human respect, tolerance, peace, and the culture of peace. Unfortunately, at the same time, religion has also played the opposite role during some periods of history. Therefore, it is important to investigate how and to what extent religious faiths, or if I may say more accurately religious paradigms, have been and are ready to educate their believers in the above-mentioned value support system, and how they could (...) set about so doing. How can religion provide us with an ambiance and a paradigm within which we can create an atmosphere of dialogue among different value systems? In this brief article, I try to seek light from the teachings of the great Persian thinker and poet, Jalaluddin Mowlavi Rumi, to be able to elaborate on this topic. (shrink)

Decolonization and Psychoanalysis challenges traditional psychoanalytic frameworks by revisiting Lacan's conceptualization of the materiality of speech through a decolonial lens. Ahmad Fuad Rahmat explores how Lacan's ideas about the symbolic order and its historical development are intertwined with colonial assumptions, and proposes that rethinking these assumptions can pave the way for a decolonial psychoanalysis. The book explores how Lacan uses Freud's Jewishness as a marginalized perspective that reveals the excluded dimensions of signification within the symbolic order, and examines James (...) Joyce's anti-colonial politics and its significance for Lacan's conception of the sinthome. The critique extends to Slavoj Žižek's Eurocentric readings of Malcolm X as a foil with which colonized speech could be conceived as 'symbolic dispossession.' Finally, it reframes the gap by understanding global capitalism as a mode of exchange to advocate for a decolonial psychoanalysis that focuses on the gaps and non-spaces of transmission as opposed to a like for like export of the clinic from the center to the periphery. Decolonization and Psychoanalysis will be of great interest to psychoanalysts and to academics and scholars of psychoanalytic studies, critical theory and cultural studies. (shrink)

The present volume is a collection of original articles of high quality on the Philosophy of Science by philosophers and scientists of international repute. As the title of the book suggests, it looks at the various points of view of leading practitioners, as well as philosophers on the nature and structure of our knowledge of the physical world. The present work brings forth the fundamental ideas of Bacon, Galileo, Newton, Descartes, Popper, Einstein, Thomas Kuhn and several other leading scientists and (...) philosophers. (shrink)

It is shown that there are incomparable Σ2 e-degrees a, b such that every e-degree strictly less than a is also less than b.

This article studies Ibn al-Haytham’s treatment of the common notions from Euclid’s Elements (usually referred to today as the axioms). We argue that Ibn al-Haytham initiated a new approach with regard to these foundational statements, rejecting their qualification as innate, self-evident, or primary. We suggest that Ibn al-Haytham’s engagement with experimental science, especially optics, led him to revise the framing of Euclidean common notions in a way that would fit his experimental approach.

The paper describes the design of an intelligent tutoring system for teaching Introduction to Computer Science-a compulsory curriculum in Al-Azhar University of Gaza to students who attend the university. The basic idea of this system is a systematic introduction into computer science. The system presents topics with examples. The system is dynamically checks student's individual progress. An initial evaluation study was done to investigate the effect of using the intelligent tutoring system on the performance of students enrolled in computer science (...) curriculum at Al-Azhar University, Gaza. The results showed a positive impact on the evaluators. (shrink)

This study aimed to develop a ‘religious conservatism’ scale tailored for university students, employing the Rasch Analysis approach in a four-step process. Firstly, a psychometric scale comprising 29 unidimensional items was formulated based on a thorough literature review. Secondly, items generated from literature studies underwent validation, resulting in the retention of 23 items after eliminating irrelevant ones. Thirdly, a psychometric analysis was conducted using the Rasch Model Approach with a sample of 549 randomly selected students from three universities in Sumatra, (...) Indonesia. In all, 15 items met the Rasch Analysis criteria, with unnecessary items removed because of logit value overlap. Fourthly, an empirical comparison of study results based on gender and student categories (first-year, second-year, junior and senior) was performed, revealing insights into the average logit level of student conservatism. As a result, the study identified the highest logit score based on gender criteria and student categories, contributing valuable information on the nuanced aspects of religious conservatism among university students. The development of this scale provides a valuable tool for future research exploring the dynamics of religious conservatism within the university context.Contribution: This research introduces a meticulously validated psychometric scale designed specifically for assessing religious conservatism among Islamic university students. Setting it apart from comparable studies, this scale demonstrates distinct advantages, such as its precise focus on the Islamic context, rigorous psychometric validation process, elimination of irrelevant items and contextual applicability within university settings. By providing researchers and educators with a more accurate tool, the scale facilitates a deeper understanding and targeted approach to addressing religious conservatism among Muslim students in Indonesia. (shrink)

This article examines the relationship between religion, tradition and identity as seen from the myth about eclipses in a village in Central Java. Javanese people in rural areas still hold beliefs passed down from their ancestors about eclipses, both lunar and solar eclipses. Using a qualitative approach, the results of the study showed that the villagers believe that eclipses occur because of evil giants called buto named Batara Kala who try to devour the sun or the moon. This natural phenomenon (...) is believed to bring disaster to pregnant women and livestock. To fight the disaster, they must perform certain ceremonies or rituals. Based on ethnographic studies, this research provides an overview of eclipse mythology for Javanese locals and analyses it from identity theory. This shows that mythical rituals reflect a continuous identity formation. Although the traditions associated with these myths to some extent transcend the boundaries of the Islamic religion, they remain unchallenged. CONTRIBUTION: This research suggests that myths play an important role in the life and identity of the people who believe in them and perform the rituals associated with them. (shrink)

This study aimed to analyse the contribution of the Sufi order in stemming religion-based violence as a form of the Sufis’ response to rampant violence, extremism and religious radicalism. This study used a qualitative method in which the data were obtained through interviews, observation and documentation. Then they were analysed by using an interactive model. This study was carried out in three Sufi communities of the Sufi order Qadariyah wan Naqshabandiyah (TQN) in Indonesia, namely in Suryalaya Islamic Boarding School, Futuhiyyah (...) Islamic Boarding School Mranggen and Darul Ulum Islamic Boarding School Jombang. The results of the study show that the three TQN orders have the concepts of dhikr and love, which are internalised in the act of Sufism. The Sufi order has the doctrines of love of God, mutual love, discourse of moderation and tolerance towards religion and other groups as the main instruments in the fight against religious radicalism. The resistance of the Sufis to religious radicalism shows that the Sufi order is cornered from attacks by formalist groups in religion. This fact reopens the historical archive of contradictions between the two major currents of Islamic thought and movement, Salafi versus Sufi. The counter-radicalism narrated by the Sufis of the three TQN communities represents their defensive attitude towards the aggressiveness of the textual and radical Salafis. Contribution: This article contributes to prevent and reduce the rise of religious radicalism in Indonesia. The doctrines of tanbih, mahabbah, tolerance and moderatism developed by the Sufis in the three TQN communities became a source of reference and inspiration for resistance to violence and religious radicalism. (shrink)

This study employs the Porter hypothesis framework to test the moderating role of production cost in the relationship between resource-efficiency actions and financial performance for German small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). For this purpose, we employ the 2012, 2018, and 2021 Flash Eurobarometer surveys to analyze how consistently SMEs adopt resource-efficiency actions, and the impact of these actions on their performance and costs. We also conduct a generalized method of moments regression analysis (GMM). Among the seven resource-efficiency actions proposed, saving (...) water had a significant positive (negative) influence on financial performance in 2012, 2021, and (2018). Saving energy and using renewable energy had a positive and significant (insignificant) effect on financial performance in 2018, 2021, and (2012). Finally, selling scrap material to other companies had a positive and significant impact in all years. Furthermore, increased production costs negatively moderate the relationship between eco-efficiency action scores and financial performance. The results indicate that the “strong” version of the Porter hypothesis is not supported: It only holds when the implementation of eco-efficiency actions reduces production costs and increases financial performance. (shrink)

A part of chapter 1, Book II of the Physics of the Šif¯ ' is dedicated to the aristotelian definition of motion . The developments to which the treatment of this question gives rise are distinctive of the Avicennian style in his Physics . By assuming the notion of double entelechy, Avicenna is following the most classical exegetical tradition. However, by setting a correspondence between the double entelechy and the double notion of motion: 1) motion as an intermediary state, which (...) can be ascribed to a moving object at any instant of its trajectory, and 2) motion as a traversal of a given distance, which cannot be ascribed to the moving object, but at the end-point of its trajectory, Avicenna gives a new content to a lieu commun of the exegetical tradition. (shrink)

Given that personal source of information is preferred by the customers over company-generated marketing communications, promoting advocacy behavior among customers is of much importance for every organization. Literature suggests that an organization's corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities significantly influence individual behavior. However, the advocacy behavior of customers (ADB), from a CSR perspective, did not receive due attention. To address this literature gap, the current study attempts to explore the relationship among CSR and ADB with the intervening role of brand admiration (...) (BA). To collect the data, customers of a large fast-food service organization in Pakistan were approached. The proposed relationships were tested through the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique. The statistical evidence verifies a positive link between CSR and ADB, while BA mediated this relationship. These findings will be supportive to the fast-food business to realize the critical role of CSR for a meaningful customer-company relationship in the face of competition. (shrink)

As early as the ninth century, Muslim astronomers started refining the Ptolemaic astronomy which, by this time, had been fully adopted as the framework of their research. Already, in the early part of this century, refinements were based on improved observational techniques, and included a variety of phenomena such as the length of the seasons, the solar equation, mean motion parameters, and many others.