We explain here how the natural selection theory of people's mutualistic sense of fairness and the biofunctional theory of human understanding are made for each other. We welcome the stage that the target article has already set for this convergence, and invite the authors to consider moving the two independently developed approaches a step closer to the natural selection level of biofunctional understanding.

The structure of everyday language implies that knowledge is an object. Like an object, it can be acquired, lost, stored, retrieved, and used. Anything that might be done to an external object could also be done to knowledge. Using concepts from the emerging field of biofunctional cognition, this paper discusses an alternative to the everyday-language framework of knowledge. The central idea is that the biological subsystems that comprise the physical nervous system have the capacity to create in us a live, (...) as opposed to pre-recorded, experience that might be described as intuitive self-awareness. In its various manifestations, this ongoing intuitive self-awareness is what we recognize as the knowledge inside us. There is no storage of knowledge of any kind. Intuitive self-awareness is in a perpetual state of re-creation and change. It serves as a private language with which the individual interacts directly with the subsystems of his/her own nervous system. This is the primary function of intuitive self-awareness &emdash; serving as the vehicle for the private communication between the individual and the individual's nervous system. Intuitive self-awareness has also come to serve, through evolutionary symbolic adaptation, as the foundation for the public language that the individual uses to communicate with other individuals. This is the secondary function of the intuitive self-awareness &emdash; to serve as the vehicle for public communication within social groups in which the individual lives. In this function, intuitive self-awareness externalizes to manifest itself in the form of an indirect code system for public communication. The nonsymbolic and symbolic forms of knowledge enable the organism to extend its internal world to encompass the external world in both its totality and detail. (shrink)

Although Bartlett's schema theory has been highly influential in modern cognitive psychology, it has often been misunderstood. This paper discusses Bartlett's schema theory along with modern schema theories, argues that the problems in the interpretation of Bartlett's writing arise because his theory is fundamentally different from modern schema theories, shows that Bartlett's theory, but not modern schema theories, can be explained in terms of the brain's constructive and self-regulatory processes, and discusses such a brain-based theory of learning and remembering in (...) the context of recent developments in biofunctional cognition. (shrink)

Researchers have held different views on what role the nervous system should play in the study of psychological phenomena. By far, the most informative line of research in the area has been conducted by Lashley whose work has opened our eyes to the possibility that learning and remembering are unexplainable in terms of the storage and retrieval of specific traces. However, with this exception, the twentieth century is likely to be remembered as an era during which the brain has been (...) considered irrelevant for the study of the mind. This has certainly been the case with the research following the computer-inspired cognitive revolution. Perhaps the most revealing indication of the degree of reluctance to embrace the brain in the study of the mind can be found in the so-called brain-inspired connectionism that purports to use the brain as a metaphor, and not as the literal foundation it really is, for the structure of cognition. Focusing on the topics of learning and remembering, this paper discusses the role of the brain in the research of Lashley, brain-inspired connectionism, and the emerging field of biofunctional cognition. The hope is to illustrate, through biofunctional cognition, the productive nature of basing psychological thinking on the foundation of a comprehensive theory of the functioning of the nervous system. (shrink)

RESUMEN Aunque la educación superior cubana constituye un espacio privilegiado para la atención a la diversidad cultural, se identifica la carencia de una concepción de la interculturalidad desde el sujeto que vive la experiencia y cuya cultura de origen se instaura como dimensión mediatizadora de la relación con respecto a otros; carencia no abordada en profundidad a través del prisma de la sicología social. En este orden se realizó una revisión bibliográfica con el objetivo de profundizar en el enfoque sicosocial (...) expresivo de las relaciones interculturales contextualizadas en la enseñanza médica superior cubana; la misma, contribuyó a la comprensión de la expresión subjetiva conformada alrededor de la realidad objeto de estudio. Los resultados permitieron construir un cuerpo teórico descriptivo-explicativo de las emergencias subjetivas que adquieren su especificidad en las relaciones interculturales desde un compromiso práctico y axiológico. A modo de conclusiones se estableció que en la búsqueda de un campo académico unificado y coherente con la complejidad de la realidad objeto de estudio, la sicología social deviene tributaria de un enfoque centrado en el estudio de las formas de subjetividad social que median en las relaciones interculturales desde el contexto de la enseñanza médica superior cubana. ABSTRACT Even though Cuban higher education is a privileged space for the attention of cultural diversity, the lack of an intercultural conception from the person who lives the experience and whose home culture is established as an interfering dimension in his relationship with others is identified; a problem which is not dealt with in depth through the perspective of social psychology. Therefore, a bibliographic review was made in order to go into depth in the expressive psychosocial approach to intercultural relationships put in context in Cuban higher medical education. It contributed to the understanding of the subjective expression which makes the reality of the object of study. The results allowed to make a descriptive-explanatory theoretical body of the subjective emergencies which become specific in intercultural relationships from a practical and axiological commitment. As a conclusion, it was established the search of an academic field which can be unifying and coherent with the complexity of the reality object of study. Social psychology becomes tributary of an approach that is centered in the study of social subjectivity forms that mediate in intercultural relationships from the context of Cuban higher medical education. (shrink)

The rise of transrealism in the second half of the twentieth century embellished the literary landscape in America with a new mode of expression that offered new understanding of time, space, identity, and social values and norms. This study situates the American novelist Kurt Vonnegut’s Player Piano within this literary context to map out the qualities that distinguish it as a transrealistic fiction. We argue that through innovative coalescence of fantasy and realism, this postmodern novel provides a satirical commentary against (...) the incongruities of the contemporary American society. To analyse the novel, we employ Rudy Rucker’s theorisations of the movement that delineates the transrealist manifesto as a union of realism, fantasy, and science-fiction. The findings reveal that through a satirical representation of the current advancements in technology and their inevitably negative impact on human life and society, the novel provides a dystopian picture of modern life in America. This apocalyptic sentiment is reinforced through a creative convergence of the surreal features of science-fiction, the tropes of naturalistic realism, and the elements of satire that together help to accentuate the deficiencies and ironies of the modern American society as well as the rampant misuse of technology by both individuals and authorities. (shrink)

The oil industry has played a major role in the economy of modern Iran and Malaysia, especially as a source of transnational exchange and as a major factor in industrial and urban development. During the previous century, the arrival of oil companies in the Persian Gulf, brought many changes to the physical built environment and accelerated the urbanization process in the port cities. Similarly, the development of the national oil industry had a huge impact on post-independence Malaysia, affecting balance (...) sheets, the environment, and society. Oil significantly changed Malaysia’s position in the global economy and transformed a predominantly agricultural country into a major producer of petroleum and natural gas. Through implementing the analytical, historical and comparative perspectives, this paper focuses on the legacy of oil cities in the Persian Gulf and the South China Sea as the birthplaces of the oil industry in two regions, whose geopolitical importance along with oil’s historical significance has the potential for representing national unity, political memory and collective shared identity. In proposing this grounding, the paper seeks to approach the heritage of oil as a particular form of industrial heritage. This research analyses the future of energy heritage, existing Covid-related challenges, political tensions and examines the various impacts, transitions and capacities associated with the current international relations, post-pandemic urban developments, and the post-oil future to pave the way to these nascent areas of industrial heritage and oil heritage in Iran and Malaysia. (shrink)

The Iran–Iraq war, which took place from 1980 to 1988, was one of the longest and bloodiest conventional wars in the history of the last century. The war was also the largest mobilization of the Iranian population and was achieved primarily by producing and promoting a culture of martyrdom based on religious themes found in Shi'i Islam. It was the war that created and consolidated what we know today as the Islamic republic of Iran. For years there have (...) been two popular public discourses in post-war Iran: the secular discourse, which is to evade, to ignore, to escape to the Caspian; and then the state's discourse, of the strong, mourning women and the heroic martyrs. It is the group of women who exist betwixt the dominant discourses of the secular versus the religious and the idea of womanhood versus motherhood that I am interested in exploring here by looking at the most recent work of a secular female filmmaker, Rakhshan Bani-Etemad. (shrink)

L’Iran (notamment post-révolutionnaire) souffre deux fois de sa mal-représentation. Non seulement, à l’intérieur des frontières, le décalage entre la diversité sociale et l’État islamique installé depuis la révolution de 79 s’est creusé, mais également, dans sa perception à l’extérieur, cette révolution a réactivé des lectures culturalistes. Nous mobilisons dans cet article le concept de « représentation », qui implique des significations politiques et esthétiques, afin de dessiner un autre tableau des tensions entre la société iranienne et son État. Le (...) blocage de la représentativité démocratique par le gouvernement a conduit la société iranienne, en quête de son image, à se tourner vers des modalités de plus en plus esthétiques. Ces sensibilités influencent le paysage politique, de même que les représentations esthétiques sont toujours susceptibles de prendre un sens politique. C’est à ce conflit des images dans le contexte iranien que nous nous intéressons. (shrink)

En Iran, sous la République islamique, les libertés des individus et des groupes sont fortement restreintes. Toute parole publique, manière d’agir ou action qui sortirait du cadre et des commandements de l’idéologie d’État fondée sur l’islamisme est susceptible d’être sanctionnée. Pourtant, depuis plus de 40 ans, la société civile est témoin de surgissements et resurgissements de dires et d’agirs interdits. En se penchant sur des exemples significatifs de ces multiples formes de résistances, la réflexion porte sur leurs motivations et (...) sur leurs impacts dans la vie individuelle et collective. (shrink)

Pers İmparatorluğu'ndan miras kalan Pers perspektifi ile birlikte Şiilik, İran'ının jeopolitik eğitimini önemli ölçüde etkilemektedir. Siyasallaşması ile Şiilik, İran'ın ulusal kimliğinin yaratılmasında ve korunmasında en önemli faktörlerden biri, belki de en önemlisi haline gelmiştir. Çeşitli bölgelerde yaşayan Şiiler ile temas halinde bulunan İran bu teması Arap Baharı süreci sonrası yoğunlaştırmıştır. Bu makalede İran’ın Şii Nüfuz Kuşağı Politikası bağlamında Bahreyn’deki Şiiler ele alınmıştır. Makalede ilk olarak Bahreyn’in sosyolojik ve dini yapısı hakkında genel bilgi verilmiş, akabinde Bahreyn’deki Şii gruplar ve liderlerin özelliklerine (...) değinilmiştir. Daha sonra bu grupların İran ile olan ilişkilerini düzeyleri ve faaliyetleri Şii milis gruplar, özelliklerini ve İran adına yürüttüğü çalışmalar incelenmiştir. Araştırma literatür taramasına dayalı olarak gerçekleştirilmiştir. (shrink)

Quando o professor José Iran entrou como professor do quadro efetivo do DFIL,em 2003, faltavam apenas dois períodos para eu concluir meu curso de graduação.Nenhuma das disciplinas que eu estava matriculado era ministrada pelo professor José Iran. Não o conhecia ainda. Além disso, havia umas disciplinas que eu precisava estar matriculado, e Filosofia do Direito, à época uma disciplina optativa, não era definitivamente uma dessas disciplinas necessárias naquele contexto. Não era necessária para mim, mas alguns amigos fizeram a (...) matrícula em Filosofia do Direito. omo naquela época o sistema de oferta de disciplinas funcionava em modo de bloco aberto, era muito comum que pegássemos disciplinas diferentes daquelas que pegavam os nossos colegas contemporâneos de ingressão no curso. Meus colegas matriculados em Filosofia do Direito estavam muito preocupados com o conteúdo da disciplina.Mas sempre faziam comentários positivos sobre como a aula era conduzida pelo professor. Comentavam acerca das dificuldades que o conteúdo oferecia.Diziam o quanto achavam a filosofia hegeliana densa. Mas, a despeito da densidade de Hegel, também ressaltavam sobre o quanto o professor era muito preparado. Admiravam a habilidade que ele tinha em costurar dialeticamente as ideias de Hegel com as ideias de outros filósofos. Esses comentários foram me chamando a atenção. Eu nunca havia pegado uma disciplina cujo foco era Hegel. Na verdade, naquela condição de graduando, eu sabia muito pouco sobre a filosofia hegeliana.Fui olhar o horário da disciplina. Vi que ela acontecia nas quartas e sextas, no horário das quatorze às dezesseis horas. Nas quartas eu tinha o horário livre. Decidi chegar mais cedo nas quartas e assistir como ouvinte.Quando o professor entrou na sala, me dirigi a ele. Pedi permissão para ver a disciplina na condição de ouvinte. Sendo solícito como costuma ser, o Professor José Iran permitiu de pronto. (shrink)

This book is about a Muslim Shi’i philosopher of the early 16th century, Najm al-Din Mahmud al-Nayrizi.

Gestational surrogacy as a treatment for infertility is being practised in some well-known medical institutions in Tehran and some other cities in Iran. While the majority of Muslims in the world are Sunni, the majority of Iranians are Shiite. Most Sunni scholars do not permit surrogate motherhood, since it involves introducing the sperm of a man into the uterus of a woman to whom he is not married. Most Shiite scholars, however, have issued jurisprudential decrees (fatwas) that allow surrogate (...) motherhood as a treatment for infertility, albeit only for legal couples. They regard this practice as transferring an embryo or fetus from one womb to another, which is not forbidden in Shiite jurisprudence. Nevertheless, there are some controversies concerning some issues such as kinship and inheritance. The main ethical concern of Iran’s experience with gestational surrogacy is the monetary relation between the intended couple and the surrogate mother. While monetary remuneration is practised in Iran and allowed by religious authorities, it seems to suffer from ethical problems. This article proposes that this kind of monetary relation should be modified and limited to reimbursement of normal costs. Such modification requires new legislation and religious decrees. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Der Islam Jahrgang: 94 Heft: 2 Seiten: 319-321.

During the rapid process of deindustrialization in Iran, the term ‘industrial heritage’ has recently emerged as a new subject into public realm. In order to integrate the methodologies for the protection and adaptive reuse strategies, the ‘industrial heritage’ itself needs to be divided into various categories. UNESCO has begun inscribing increasing numbers of local industrial legacies such as railway, mines, factories, assembly plants, agricultural production and manufacturing production in its World Heritage List. However, in the process of their adaptive (...) reuse the question of heritage meanings arises. Over the past century in Iran, powerful corporate and governmental actors have created a broad range of oil imaginaries that changed over time and in line with local cultures. Starting from 1920s and after the nationalization of oil industry in Iran, oil cities such as Abadan and Masjid Suleiman saw massive expansion to house labors and oil-industry specialists who had arrived from the United States, Europe, India, and the Persian Gulf states. This research aims to clarify how the oil industry, in close collaboration with national governments, has materially shaped the oil cities through oil-specific architecture like company headquarters, gas stations, retail and infrastructure buildings. The current legacy of oil industry continues to reshape the industry, society and politics as well. This research uses a critical and analytical problem-based approach to examine the current policies that build a new image and identity through adaptive reuse strategies to promote sustainable local development in Iran’s industrial heritage. (shrink)

La brève histoire de la philosophie moderne en Iran exposée dans cet ouvrage se présente comme un préambule à la connaissance des hommes de lettres iraniens et à leur pensée dans une société tissée de paradoxes. L'herméneutique est sans doute l'un des exemples les plus significatifs de la modernisation théorique en cours en Iran. Après avoir acquis une nouvelle forme de langage, dépourvue de fondements, et créé une conception qui permet de travestir la réalité du monde, elle s'est (...) substituée à son image classique pour devenir une manière de camoufler la décadence de la pensée traditionnelle. De même, l'iconoclasme, phénomène qui touche la conscience visuelle de la société iranienne, représente un autre exemple de ce paradoxe originel, à double tranchant, d'une vision qui ne parvient pas à identifier son trait ontologique et à déterminer l'éducation de la vue. Ainsi le sacré ne supporte pas de se voir et de percevoir l'autre comme sacré, car une conscience séculaire qui n'a pas accès à la vision demeure dans le domaine de la divinité obscurantiste moderne. (shrink)

For more than a decade, Iran has been referring to a fatwa issued by its Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, proscribing nuclear weapons. The fatwa, however, not only failed to influence the process that led to the resolution of Iran’s nuclear crisis, but also has been met with a good deal of skepticism. The most commonly held suspicions about the credibility of the fatwa can be summed up in five central questions: Has the nuclear fatwa actually been issued? Does (...) the fatwa apply to all the aspects of nuclear weapons including their production, possession and use? What is the juridical status of the fatwa? Was the nuclear fatwa issued only to deceive other nations? Is the fatwa really irreversible? This article tries to answer these questions by providing a chronological review of the fatwa and analyzing all the relevant statements by Khamenei. The analysis is conducted against the background of Islamic principles, Shi’a jurisprudence and the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The article concludes that the fatwa is a credible religious decree and could indeed contribute to the cause of nuclear disarmament. (shrink)

Trois mouvements sociaux caractérisent la société iranienne d’aujourd’hui. Le premier est le mouvement des étudiants, qui combine des revendications culturelles pour une société plus ouverte avec des demandes politiques pour une société plus libre, dans laquelle la participation active des citoyens à la scène politique devrait être reconnue. Le second mouvement est celui des femmes, par lequel des femmes d’âge moyen ainsi que la nouvelle génération expriment leur demande pour une société moins discriminatoire vis-à-vis des femmes. Le troisième mouvement est (...) celui des intellectuels, par lequel de nouvelles interprétations de l’islam mettent en question la nature théocratique du régime politique en vigueur. Contrairement aux mouvements des années 1970, qui débouchèrent sur la révolution islamique de 1979, les nouveaux mouvements sociaux en Iran ont une forte dimension démocratique. Ils sont « protodémocratiques » dans le sens où ils revendiquent l’ouverture du système politique au nom d’une nouvelle version de l’islam, moins holistique, plus individualiste, séparant le registre de la spiritualité religieuse de celui du politique.Three social movements characterize today’s Iranian society. The first is the students’ movement which combines cultural demands for a more open society with a political one, for a freer society in which the citizens’ participation to the political system should be recognized. The second is the womens’ movement, through which middle-aged women and the younger generation express their claim for a less gender-discriminating society. The third movement is the intellectuals’ movement, in which new interpretations of Islam put into question the theocratic nature of the political regime. Contrary to the movements of the 1970s that ended up in the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the new social movements in Iran have a strong democratic dimension. They are « protodemocratic » in the sense that they ask for the opening of the political system in the name of a new version of Islam, less holistic, more individualistic, separating the realm of religious spirituality from the arena of the politics. (shrink)

This paper aims to extract Iran’s philosophy of education from two sources of the constitution and the course of practice in educational institutions. Regarding the first source, it is argued that parallel to the two main threads of the constitution, Iran’s main elements of philosophy of education are expected to be derived from; Islam and democracy. The challenge in front of this feature of Iran’s implicit philosophy of education refers to the seemingly contradictory relation between the two (...) components of Islam and democracy. It is argued that the hard contrast being held between religion and liberal democracy is not defensible and that there could be compatibilities between the two. As for the second source, it is shown that there are concerns about the main trends that underpin Iranian educational institutions. One trend is that the religious education in Iran is at the threat of becoming dogmatic and being overwhelmed by indoctrination. The second trend, referring to the minorities’ education, shows a further challenge regarding recognition of minorities’ right to education. Finally, the third trend is related to the embrace of neoliberalism in Iranian educational endeavors. It is argued that this trend provides a tension in the overall corpus of the country’s philosophy of education. (shrink)

From ancient times, Iran’s boundaries were formed by Iranian kings’ struggles. From that time, an imagination about these boundaries was formed in Iranian minds and has been continued until now. So, one of the important duties of Iranian kings was to expand Iran’s boundaries to that of ancient times. The aim of this research is to investigate Iran’s relations with European countries and the role of these relations in forming the Iran’s boundaries from 1789 to 1828. (...) In this research, a descriptive-analytic method is used. The findings of this research show that in Qajar dynasty, Agha Muhammad Khan and Fath Ali shah made some great attempts to expand Iran’s boundaries to that of ancient times in order to, through which, can legitimate their rule on Iran. These actions made Iran to enter European countries’ politics widely. Russia advanced in Caucasus and the Britain entered Iran’s affairs widely to protect its realms in India, and France set a relationship with Iran in order to access India. Entrance of the unknowledgeable Iranians in international politics led to Iranian amazement, and European countries’ interference in forming the Iran’s boundaries, and, step by step, Iran lost some of its parts. (shrink)

Iran is the only Muslim country that has legislation on embryo donation, adopted in 2003. With an estimated 10–15% of couples in the country that are infertile, there are not any legal or religious barriers that prohibit an infertile couple from taking advantage of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ARTs). Although all forms of ARTs available in Iran have been legitimized by religious authorities, there is a lack of legislation in all ARTs except embryo donation. By highlighting ethical issues in (...) embryo donation, the paper presents a critical review of the Act of Embryo Donation in Iran. The paper argues that the Act does not provide enough safeguards for the future child and assurance for the safety of the donated embryos. It also does not restrict embryo donation to surplus embryos from infertile couples and is silent about the number of embryos that could be donated by each couple as well as the number of recipients for donated embryos by a couple. The Act is also silent about the issues of genetic linkage (nasab) and heritage which are challenging issues, especially in a conservative Islamic society. As a result, the future child may not inherit from their birth parents, as it is not required by the Act, or from the genetically related parents under the anonymity policy. Finally there is no standard national protocol or guidelines to evaluate the safety of the donated embryos. The paper concludes that despite its benefits, the Act lacks clarity, and it is subject to misunderstanding and confusion. (shrink)

Beeman uses Islamic history to show how contentious stances have evolved towards the West and how ignorance of that history has handicapped the United States in developing effective policies towards Iran.

By the summer of 2001, most of Iranhad been suffering a three-year drought, theworst in recent history. Water rationing was inplace in Tehran and other cities, and largeproportions of the country's crops andlivestock were perishing. Yet many academicsand other experts in Iran insist that the watercrisis is only partly drought-related, andclaim that mismanagement of water resources isthe more significant cause. Underlying thisdiscussion is a complex of overlapping yetoften conflicting ethical systems – Iranian,Islamic, and modernist/industrialist – whichare available to inform (...) water policy in Iran. Areview of the various arguments about thenature of the crisis and the range of solutionsthat have been proposed, including precedentsfrom traditional Iranian water management andthe ethics of water use in Islamic law,suggests that Iran's own cultural heritageprovides alternatives to wholesale adoption ofWestern models. (shrink)

Ahmad Fardid, the 'anti-Western' philosopher known to many as the Iranian Heidegger, became the self-proclaimed philosophical spokesperson for the Islamic Republic, famously coining the term 'Westoxication'. Using new materials about Fardid's intellectual biography and interviews with thirteen individuals, Ali Mirsepassi pieces together the striking story of Fardid's life and intellectual legacy. Each interview in turn sheds light on Iran's twentieth-century intellectual and political self-construction and highlights Fardid's important role and influence in the creation of Iranian modernity. The Fardid phenomenon (...) was unique to the Iranian story, and yet contributed to a broader twentieth-century Heideggerian tradition that marked the political destiny of other countries under a similar ideological sway. Through these accounts, Mirsepassi cuts to the nerve of how deadly political 'authenticity movements' take hold of modern societies and spread their ideology. Combining a sociological framework with the realities of lived experience, he examines Iran's recent and astonishing upheavals, experiments, and mass mobilizations. (shrink)