The purpose of our lives is to grow step by step toward a fundamental transformation. Instead of always seeking some form of gratification, we can learn to give to others with no self-interest at all. The is the essential teaching of the Kabbalah portrayed in these essays by Baal Hasulam – the greatest modern explicator of Kabbalah. Rabbi Gottlieb provides an illuminating commentary as a living Chassidic rebbe devoted to the practice and teaching of Baal Hasulam’s spiritual path.

This article presents a thorough analysis of the enormous popularity of Kabbalah in recent years, its roots, and its purpose. The greatest Kabbalist of the 20th century, Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag, author of The Sulamcommentary on The Zohar, predicted the breakout of the present-day world crisis and explained that almost two thousand years ago, The Zohar had already predicted that the end of the 20th century would present a crossroads where humanity would have to choose its direction. Now, at (...) the beginning of the 21st century, The Zohar's predictions and Ashlag's interpretation, as well as the suggested solution, all merit a thorough examination. (shrink)

In a recent article, Azzouni has argued in favor of a version of formalism according to which ordinary mathematical proofs indicate mechanically checkable derivations. This is taken to account for the quasi-universal agreement among mathematicians on the validity of their proofs. Here, the author subjects these claims to a critical examination, recalls the technical details about formalization and mechanical checking of proofs, and illustrates the main argument with aanalysis of examples. In the author's view, much of mathematical reasoning presents genuine (...) meaning-dependent mathematical characteristics that cannot be captured by formal calculi. ‘…there is a conflict between mathematical practice and the formalist doctrine.’ [Kreisel, 1969, p. 39]. (shrink)

Given a weakly o-minimal structure${\cal M}$and its o-minimal completion$\bar{{\cal M}}$, we first associate to$\bar{{\cal M}}$a canonical language and then prove thatTh$\left$determines$Th\left$. We then investigate the theory of the pair$\left$in the spirit of the theory of dense pairs of o-minimal structures, and prove, among other results, that it is near model complete, and every definable open subset of${\bar{M}^n}$is already definable in$\bar{{\cal M}}$.We give an example of a weakly o-minimal structure interpreting$\bar{{\cal M}}$and show that it is not elementarily equivalent to any reduct (...) of an o-minimal trace. (shrink)

This study introduces the concept of deviant behavior in a moderated-mediation framework of incentives and organizational justice perception. The proposed relationships in the theoretical framework were tested with a sample of 311 academics, using simple random sampling, via causal models and structural equation modeling. The findings suggest that incentives might boost the apparent performance, but not necessarily the intended performance. The results confirm that employees’ affection for incentives has direct, indirect, and conditional indirect effects on their deviant behavior likelihood. The (...) relationship between employee deviant behavior likelihood and affection for incentives was moderated by organizational justice perception and partially mediated by reward expectancy, thus having significant contributions toward the extant literature of deviant behavior and incentives. The findings have important implications for managers, academicians, and policy makers for mitigating adverse behavior in professional employees through proper use of incentives. (shrink)

kerekh 1. 744-745 -- kerekh 2. 746-747 -- kerekh 4. 750-751.

[1] Seder ha-ʻavodah -- [2] Moʻadim. Amarot.

Introduction -- Fraud in research : frequency patterns -- An organizational approach to research fraud -- Fraud, lies, deceptions, fabrications, and falsifications -- Deviance in scientific research : norms, hot spots, control -- Concluding discussion.

Book of Jewish philosophy including such topics as reconciling science and religion, Divine providence, God's infinitude and omniscience, reincarnation, how faith has the power to alter nature, God's immutability, how to reconcile spirituality with the physical universe, and resurrection.

How faith in God maintains the link between the physical realm and the spiritual realm. Discusses free will, resurrection, God's immanence and transcendence, and similar topics.

At the end of the fifteenth century, the Castilian-Aragonian Eli Habilio wrote what is now the only extant, complete, and original Hebrew commentary on the entire Metaphysics of Aristotle. This commentary is short, about 15 folio pages long, and consists almost entirely of quotations from Averroes’ Middle Commentary on Aristotle’s Metaphysics in the early fourteenth-century translation of Qalonimos ben Qalonimos. Yet Habilio elsewhere expresses only disdain for Averroes and hopes that Jews will turn away from Averroes to read Scotus’ metaphysical (...) works instead. The author’s claim is that Habilio’s Commentary is intended to supplement his translation of Antonius Andreas’ questions on the Metaphysics and provide a Hebrew summary of the most read Hebrew version of the Metaphysics that would choose its words in such a way as not to contradict Scotus and in some cases even to encourage its readers to seek out a Scotist approach. (shrink)

The articles in this volume explore the teachings on happiness by a range of thinkers from antiquity through Spinoza, most of whom held human happiness to comprise intellectual knowledge of that which is Good in itself, namely God. These thinkers were from Greek pagan, Muslim, Jewish, and Christian backgrounds and wrote their works in Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, and Latin. Still, they shared similar philosophical views of what constitutes the Highest Good, and of the intellectual activities to be undertaken in pursuit (...) of that Good. Yet, they differed, often greatly, in the role they assigned to deeds and practical activities in the pursuit of this happiness. These differences were, at times, not only along religious lines, but also along political and ethical lines. Other differences treated the relationship between the body and intellectual happiness and the various ways in which bodily health and well-being can contribute to intellectual health and true happiness. (shrink)

The Kuzari: In Defense of the Despised Faith is the first new translation into English of The Kuzari since 1905, annotated and explained based on the classic commentaries. Written by Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi of Spain over a period of twenty years and completed in 1140, The Kuzari has enthralled generations of Jews and non-Jews alike with its clear-cut presentation on Judaism, and its polemics against Greek philosophy, Christianity, Islam, and Karaism.

Among the aims of the author in this wide-ranging article is to draw attention to the numerous formal sciences which so far have received little scrutiny, if at all, on the part of philosophers of mathematics and of science in general. By the formal sciences the author understands such mathematical disciplines as operations research, control theory, signal processing, cluster analysis, game theory, and so on. First, the author presents a long list of such formal sciences with a detailed discussion of (...) their subject matter and with extensive references to the pertinent literature. Turning to the nature of the formal sciences, the author states that “the formal sciences, though they arose in most cases out of engineering requirements, are sciences and can be pursued without reference to applications”. It is argued, through a wealth of examples, that in a great number of cases the formal sciences permit the attainment of provable certainty about actual parts of the world. As Franklin puts it, “knowledge in the formal sciences, with its proofs about network flows, proofs of computer program correctness, and the like, gives every appearance of having achieved the philosophers’ stone; a method of transmuting opinion about the base and contingent beings of this world into the necessary knowledge of pure reason.” Franklin clearly distinguishes between certainty and necessity: “ g¤g¤g what the mathematician in offering is not, in the first instance, absolute certainty in principle, but necessity. This is how his assertion differs from one made by a physicist. A proof offers a necessary connection between premises and conclusion. One may extract practical certainty from this g¤g¤g but this is a separate step.” Though Franklin explicitly states that there is a gap between necessity and certainty as one passes from mathematical reasoning to applications, the main thrust of the article consists in arguing that the gap is considerably smaller than generally claimed.. (shrink)

Śiḥot maran ha-Mashgiaḥ Mohari Leṿinshṭain, zatsal -- Ḥidushe torato ʻa. Mas. B.ḳ. ṿe-liḳuṭim -- Leḳeṭ mi-maʼamraṿ mi-moreshet Daṿid Heber ṿe-ʻinyene ha-shaʻah.

The Many-Worlds Interpretation (MWI) is an approach to quantum mechanics according to which, in addition to the world we are aware of directly, there are many other similar worlds which exist in parallel at the same space and time. The existence of the other worlds makes it possible to remove randomness and action at a distance from quantum theory and thus from all physics.

In this introductory statement, given at the beginning of the Aboagora symposium in Turku in August 2011, Yehuda Elkana highlights the need, in accordance with the title of the conference, to rethink rather than unthink the Enlightenment. Indeed, the Enlightenment remained an unfinished project, but one should never forget that this era formed the basis for the greatest and most important creation of knowledge in all areas for 300 years. Over the last 100 or more years, however, cracks have (...) started to appear in this edifice, Elkana argues: researchers have started to realise that one cannot really distinguish the rational from the irrational and that being contextual does not necessarily mean being relativist. (shrink)

Recently, the variety of the financial frauds have increased, while the number of victims became difficult to estimate. The purpose of this paper is to present the main profiles of financial frauds’ victims using a reviewing method. The analysis captures the main theoretical and empirical background regarding the motives and circumstances of becoming a victim, the dynamics of several social and demographical characteristics of this type of victims, as well as a sample of relevant case studies from some developing countries. (...) The main finding is that, in literature, most of the victims are male people of different ages, employed, married or single, regardless the level of education. For developing countries such as China, India and Nigeria, the majority of victims act out of naivety and desire to escape from poverty, while some victims from Latin America, China and Nigeria are influenced by greed and lack of empathy, without thinking of further consequences for their families and friends involved. Moreover, most of the victims are convinced to invest in financial schemes by family members, friends, or acquaintances. (shrink)

V Kantovi in Longinovi obravnavi vzvišenega naletimo na vzporednice, ki skorajda potrjujejo misel Danka Grliča, da tu ni bilo kakšnega posebnega miselnega napredka. Izkaže se, da modernistična zastavitev potiska v pozabo psihologistično estetiko in njeno obravnavo vzvišenega v francoski in angleški tradiciji. Pri Longinu ni najti modernistične strasti po spreminjanju razmer in izboljšanju človeštva. Pri Longinu nas vzvišeno s svojim učinkom ne pokliče v funkcijo subjekta napredka, ampak nam da čutiti, da smo poklicani v pozicijo opazovalca dovršenega naravnega teatra. Moralni (...) zakon, ki ga zbudi vzvišeno pri Longinu, je »conso-latio philosophiae«, medtem ko gre pri Kantu za »moralni entuziazem«. (shrink)

Although cognitive psychology and neuroscience have usurped the influential position once held by psychoanalysis, this volume seeks to reclaim the value of the unconscious as a methodological tool for the study of ancient texts by transforming our understanding of what it means, how it operates, and how it relates to textual hermeneutics.

Purpose This study aims to examine the long-term effects of an Israeli digital literacy government program for disadvantaged populations, as they are perceived by participants of the program one year after completing the course. Design/methodology/approach Participants in the program were interviewed about the effects of participating in the program, their experiences and satisfaction, in retrospect, a year after they completed the program. Findings The main reasons for joining the program included cognitive motivations, mainly interest to become familiar with internet applications, (...) followed by employment aspiration. Positive benefits from participation included accumulated knowledge, confidence in using technology, empowerment and enhanced sense of self-efficacy. Interviewees also reported that as they could not practice or communicate with instructors once they completed the program, a significant portion of the accumulated gains faded. Social implications Social and practical implications: Digital technologies constitute key infrastructure to facilitate public participation, as well as for gaining social, political and economic capital. Therefore, there is a significant social value in reducing digital inequality by increasing digital literacy of disadvantaged populations, i.e. citizens with low socioeconomic status and low digital literacy. This study sheds light on the benefits gained from such programs, as perceived by past participants. Originality/value While previous studies evaluating digital literacy programs focus on specific technical improvements and short-term gains, this study investigates the long-term effects and shortcomings of the program as perceived by participants. (shrink)

The author's aim in this biography is to shed light on the contrasts and polarity—yet relationship—between the rational and the irrational in Gödel's work and personality. On the one hand there is the genius logician whose technical work can be said practically to have attained the limits of what rational thought can produce; on the other hand, one is struck, claims the author, by the irrationality in Gödel's personality and psychic structure, such as his belief in the existence of spirits, (...) demons, angels, the devil, and other evil-wishing forces that he thought had haunted and deprived him of a peaceful existence.As is well known from other biographies, Gödel was of a frail physical health and psychic balance, having suffered from his student days on from bouts of depression and ‘nervous’ breakdowns—generally attributed to being overworked—that required at times short hospitalization in a sanatorium and culminating toward the end of his life in a marked deterioration in his mental health that resulted in his starving himself to death out of fear of being poisoned. These events are only mentioned here in passing.The author, who teaches philosophy at the University of Lille, is naturally interested in Gödel's philosophical views as well as in his metaphysical reflections, such as his thoughts about life after death and the survival of an immaterial soul. From the 1940s Gödel kept a philosophical diary that contains 670 handwritten notes, written in the now defunct Gabelsberger shorthand. Having feared controversies whenever his metaphysical/philosophical views went against the spirit of the times, Gödel was never led to a comprehensive publication of these views, preferring to put these notes in the private format of notebooks that are now preserved in his Nachlassat Princeton University. 1 The author had several opportunities to study the two of these notebooks …. (shrink)

This is a philosophical paper in favor of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum theory. The necessity of introducing many worlds is explained by analyzing a neutron interference experiment. The concept of the “measure of existence of a world” is introduced and some difficulties with the issue of probability in the framework of the MWI are resolved.