Knowledge; information; learning, philosophy of; teaching and study.

Philosophy; philosophical theology; philosophical anthropology; history.

الفكر، والتَّفكير، والتَّفكُّر، والتَّدبُّر، والتَّذكُّر،... مفاهيمُ أساسية رافقت الوجود الإنساني، منذ بدء الخليقة، وسوف تبقى معه إلى نهايتها، دون أن تثبت مادتها وموضوعاتها ومستوياتها عند حد معين، في حياة الفرد البشري أو الجيل البشري. فكيف يمكن لكتاب أن يستقصي ذلك؟! هذا الكتاب إذاً، مدخل إلى الفكر وحسب؛ مدخل في مفاهيمه ومستوياته وخرائطه... تضمن تجوالاً فكرياً: في موضوع الفكر؛ وفي مصادره في الأصول والتراث والخبرة المعاصرة، وموضوعاته، وأدواته، ونصيب أصناف أهله منه، والمؤسسات المتخصصة فيه، وعلاقته بالعلم جملة، وبالعلوم النفسية والتربوية والاجتماعية (...) واللغوية والسياسية... وهو كذلك مدخل إلى عملية البناء الفكري؛ كيف تبدأ، ثم تتواصل مرحلة بعد أخرى؟ وكيف تترقى من مستوى إلى آخر؟ وكيف تتنوع في المحتوى الذي تبنيه؟ وهو قبل ذلك وبعده، أسئلة كثيرة، وإجابات قليلة؛ فقيمةُ التَّفكُّر في إثارة الأسئلة لا تقلُّ عن التفكر في البحث عن إجاباتها، وبعض الإجابات عارضة مؤقتة، تتغير وتتعمق مع مزيد من الفكْر والذِّكْر، والتَّفكُّر والتَّذكُّر. قد يجد القارئ في الكتاب بعض مواطن المتعة والطرافة، لكنه سوف يجد كذلك مواطن كثيرة تضطره إلى التَّفكُّر والتَّدبُّر، فإذا نجح الكتاب في الأمرين، فذلك ما كان يهدف إليه!. (shrink)

Bennabi, Malek; Islamic civilization; Islamic renewal; philosophy.

الفكر، والتَّفكير، والتَّفكُّر، والتَّدبُّر، والتَّذكُّر،... مفاهيمُ أساسية رافقت الوجود الإنساني، منذ بدء الخليقة، وسوف تبقى معه إلى نهايتها، دون أن تثبت مادتها وموضوعاتها ومستوياتها عند حد معين، في حياة الفرد البشري أو الجيل البشري. فكيف يمكن لكتاب أن يستقصي ذلك؟! هذا الكتاب إذاً، مدخل إلى الفكر وحسب؛ مدخل في مفاهيمه ومستوياته وخرائطه... تضمن تجوالاً فكرياً: في موضوع الفكر؛ وفي مصادره في الأصول والتراث والخبرة المعاصرة، وموضوعاته، وأدواته، ونصيب أصناف أهله منه، والمؤسسات المتخصصة فيه، وعلاقته بالعلم جملة، وبالعلوم النفسية والتربوية والاجتماعية (...) واللغوية والسياسية... وهو كذلك مدخل إلى عملية البناء الفكري؛ كيف تبدأ، ثم تتواصل مرحلة بعد أخرى؟ وكيف تترقى من مستوى إلى آخر؟ وكيف تتنوع في المحتوى الذي تبنيه؟ وهو قبل ذلك وبعده، أسئلة كثيرة، وإجابات قليلة؛ فقيمةُ التَّفكُّر في إثارة الأسئلة لا تقلُّ عن التفكر في البحث عن إجاباتها، وبعض الإجابات عارضة مؤقتة، تتغير وتتعمق مع مزيد من الفكْر والذِّكْر، والتَّفكُّر والتَّذكُّر. قد يجد القارئ في الكتاب بعض مواطن المتعة والطرافة، لكنه سوف يجد كذلك مواطن كثيرة تضطره إلى التَّفكُّر والتَّدبُّر، فإذا نجح الكتاب في الأمرين، فذلك ما كان يهدف إليه! (shrink)

Education; philosophy; Islamic education; Qatar.

On the pedagogic views of Muslim theologians, and their influence in individual and societal development.

On the pedagogic views of Muslim theologians, and their influence in individual and societal development.

al-juzʼ 1. al-Mushkilāt al-falsafīyah -- al-juzʼ 2. Taṭawwur manāhij al-ʻulūm.

This is a philological and critical analysis of two crucial philosophical concepts, viz., reaso and experienceâ. The study shows that, though there is no word in Sanskrit which may be taken as equivalent of Western reason and thought, such terms as tarka, yukti, nyaya, anumana, buddhi, etc., clearly capture parts or aspects of what is meant by reason and thought (Denken). Moreover, it is misleading to trans- late sruti as revelation. Construing sruti as revelation surreptitiously imports a Semitic theological concept (...) into the Vedic tradition. The case of experience is more promising because we have such Sanskrit words as anubhava or anubhuti that do translate into experience. However, experience in Western thought has acquired many shades of meaning, and the study determines in what sense the Indian anubhava captures the Western experience. Finally, the book demonstrates that Indian philosophy provides an account of the cognitive process that begins with perception and culminates in wisdom (highest experience). This whole process may be called reason, at both ends of which we can talk of experience, which places experience not in an external opposition to reason, but rather as something that belongs to it internally. Thus, the modern Western opposition between reason and experience collapses and the two toge-ther yield an integrated process of acquisition, validation, and practical application of knowledge. (shrink)

The first English translation of the "First Section" (Prathama Varnakam)--the "Section on Inquiry" (Jijñasadhikaranam)--of the Pañacapadikavivaranam, a Sanskrit commentary offering a systematic exposition of Advaita (nondualistic) Vedanta from the Vivarana perspective. The central question concerns the nature of ignorance, or not-knowing, and its relation to knowing. It discusses how ignorance obstructs the nature of reality; the locus and support of ignorance; and whether ignorance is a positive entity. Includes a detailed introduction, transliterated text, translation, and explanatory notes. Published by American (...) Institute of Buddhist Studies (AIBS). (shrink)

Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, the contentious Egyptian thinker, has proposed different ideas about the revelation and the Qur’an and encountered with different reactions. He made endeavor to provide some natural and non metaphysical explanations for the Islamic phenomena. In this regard he went through the miraculous feature of the Qur’an differently and reduced it to a cultural-literary phenomenon that everyone who knows Arabic takes it as a fundamental cultural text. Analyzing the literature and the linguistic mechanism of the Qur’an from (...) the viewpoint of the current literary criticism will show its role in the creation of history and culture. This view is radically different from the viewpoint of faithful people because it reduces the religious attitude to a cultural atmosphere in which the Qur’an is like the other masterpieces which may be literary criticized. The content of the Qur’an, in this kind of criticism, is ignored while in the current literary criticism the content is heeded too. (shrink)

This paper explores the concept of moral expertise in the contemporary philosophical debate, with a focus on three accounts discussed across moral epistemology, bioethics, and virtue ethics: an epistemic authority account, a skilled agent account, and a hybrid model sharing key features of the two. It is argued that there are no convincing reasons to defend a monistic approach that reduces moral expertise to only one of these models. A pluralist view is outlined in the attempt to reorient the discussion (...) about moral expertise. (shrink)

The Anthropocene debates are rooted in epistemological differences. Geologists seek temporal markers of spatially even anthropogenic impact. Thus, they favor geologic data that fit this category. Humanists and social scientists, on the other hand, tend to focus on the negative effects of spatial unevenness. Without linking the Anthropocene’s temporal and spatial components, the official designation, ultimately determined by geologists, will be a futile exercise that will not make good on the Anthropocene Working Group’s intention for it to be useful for (...) wider segments of society. However, if the Anthropocene is divided into an Early, Middle, and Late Anthropocene, each defined by geologic evidence, the uneven spatial distributions of anthropogenic damage can be traced to specific events in human history, thus actualizing the predictive value of geology. Further, this diachronic scheme, unlike the synchronic ones thus far proposed, makes more legible two fundamental dynamics between human and natural trajectories: the intensification of global inequity coterminous with the intensification of natural damage; and humanity’s ever more audacious attempts to control the environment. This ethos, wielded as the prime justification for taking over that which belonged to cultures not espousing it, has resulted in anthropogenic damage disproportionately affecting the most economically and historically vulnerable peoples. However, their alternative modes of coping with the damages—an ineluctable responsiveness to, rather than control over, environment—enables them to survive. As such, they could lead the way through the Anthropocene, modeling adaptation and mitigation strategies, and obviating the global North’s unsound hope for a technological solution. Three metropolitan architects, Rem Koolhaas, David Adjaye, and V. Mitch McEwen, look to global Southern urbanisms––improvisational, creative, minimalist praxes grounded in indigenous lifeways––for alternate modes of inhabiting anthropocenic modernity. Likewise, New Zealand’s government has materially and ethically mitigated its legacy of settler colonialism by combining Western scientific data with indigenous knowledge to formulate more adaptive, responsive, integrative approaches to environment. By expanding the data beyond the stratigraphic, coordinated interdisciplinary research can measure variegated effects of––and responses to––the Anthropocene, thus better equipping humanity to adapt to and/or mitigate climate change and to eschew unsustainable practices. (shrink)

ABSTRACT The paper examines the ethical conception of the most well‐known and much discussed Hindu text, the Bhagavad Gītā, in the context of the Western distinction between duty ethics and virtue ethics. Most of the materials published on the Gītā make much of its conception of duty; however, there is no systematic investigation of the notion of virtue in the Gītā. The paper begins with a discussion of the fundamental characteristics of virtue ethics, before undertaking a discussion of the conceptions (...) of duty and virtue in the Gītā. The paper clearly demonstrates that (1) both duty and virtue coexist in the Gītā, and (2) the Gītā accords virtue an important place. (shrink)

International migration in the contemporary era of globalization generates complex inequalities that require a non-statist approach to justice. This paper considers how the analysis of these inequalities may be fruitfully undertaken using Nancy Fraser’s framework of redistribution, recognition, and representation. The discussion uses empirical material from a case study of Ethiopian women who migrate as domestic workers to countries in the Middle East. The paper suggests potential directions for more transformative approaches to justice within the context of international migration.

The Disinterested Witness is a detailed, contextual, and interpretive study of the concept of saksin (or that which directly or immediately perceives) in Advaita Vedanta, and a fascinating and significant comparison of the philosophies of ...

Backed by its technological achievements, modern science appears as the de facto source of truth to the majority of our contemporaries. Its sole reliance on reason and empirical data gives it an air of objectivity that has conferred upon it an almost unquestioning authority. Against the backdrop of this pervasive scientism, Philosophy of Science in the Light of the Perennial Wisdom is a daring attempt to offer an intellectual critique of modern science in its foundation by rigorously examining the intrinsic (...) limitations of rational thought and empirical investigation. Unique of its kind, this book offers a refreshing look at the traditional doctrines of epistemology and metaphysics as an antidote to the subjective as well as objective errors of modern science, which is thus revealed as no more than a belief system that falls radically short of offering a full knowledge of reality; this, in contrast to the perennial wisdom of the world's great religions that for millennia have offered humankind not only keys to true knowledge, but also the means of attaining it, which precisely constitutes man's reason for being. (shrink)

The feeling of shame has a longstanding role in the relations between individual and society. In this article we shall distinguish between shame and shaming and try to understand the social and cultural function of shame. Even though shame is a feeling that has a physiological basis, the way in which we experience emotions differs from culture to culture since it is the meaning that we attach to an event that evokes the emotion rather than the event itself. In order (...) to understand the phenomenon of social shaming in the present we must examine the social origins of this phenomenon in Western culture. The methodology most fitting to examine this cultural construct is the genealogical method, by way of which we shall come to see that shaming is not an essentially new phenomenon in Western culture, but only a new mode of expressing old patterns. (shrink)