Summary In the attempt to understand science, definition is not much of a help. Due to the ever growing complexity of science, no unique and universally valid set of defining criteria is available. Hence, certain distinctions are resorted to: science is both a body of tested knowledge and a method of inquiry. The latter, in turn, consists of two phases: discovery and confirmation. The writer argues that it is mainly in respect of its method that science can best be characterized (...) and distinguished from other types of inquiry. (shrink)

Distinction of ‘awām- khawāṣ (the ordinary and the elite) is a general distinction in philosophical literature that shows the difference of people in their level of understanding the truth. It is possible to take this distinction back to Plato in Ancient Greek philosophy. Plato's hesitation in expressing his philosophical thoughts in written form, and Aristotle's use of obscure expressions and symbols in his works against the possibility of reaching those who are not competent, is a result of the distinction between (...) ‘awām-khawāṣ. This distinction was covered in Islamic thought by associating it with the three addressing styles mentioned in the Quran and the fact that the prophet was proclaiming the message according to these addressing styles. The purpose of this study is to reveal how the truth should be conveyed to people of all levels through the evaluations of the Islamic philosophers and thinkers on the distinction between ‘awām and khawāṣ. In the study it will be attempted to find answers to the questions of what are the reasons leading the Islamic philosophers and thinkers to make the distinction between ‘awām and khawāṣ, what arguments they used to explained the necessity of this distinction and why is the distinction between ‘awām and khawāṣ so important. Firstly, the lexical and terminological meanings of the concepts of ‘awām and khawāṣ are introduced. The ‘awām, which is used to express the public, ordinary people, and the lower layer of the society, is a term that qualifies the ignorant society, who has adopted a system of imitation-based life and belief cannot understand the truth of life. Khawāṣ, who are defined as the elite, the prominent, who represents the intellectual group and strives to grasp the truth, base their life and belief on knowledge and attain a higher level of awareness. After the literal and terminological meanings, it has been proceeded to the historical background of this distinction. Then the views of Islamic philosophers and thinkers who directly point to this distinction in this regard have been examined by referring to their main works. These are al-Fārābī, Ikhvān-Ṣafāʾ, Ibn Sinā, Rāghıb al-Iṣfahānī, Ghazālī, Ibn Tufayl, Ibn Rūshd, Ibn'ūn-Nefīs. For instance, al-Fārābī makes a clear distinction between ‘awām and khawāṣ in his works on political philosophy. He addresses this distinction by stating that the virtuous city is divided into two groups, the difference is in the methods used by these group to grasp the truth, and that they can achieve happiness in different ways. Stating that people are made up of different groups, Ikhvān-Ṣafāʾ goes to the distinction of ‘awām- khawāṣ and classifies the sciences accordingly. In addition, Ikhvān-Ṣafāʾ say that the prophets pay attention to the mentioned distinction while communicating the message of Allah to people. Ikhvān-Ṣafāʾ have related this distinction to the distinction between exoteric and esoteric. The understanding of prophethood and eschatology of Ibn Sinā shows ‘awām-khawāṣ distinction very clearly, too. According to him the truth should be conveyed gradually. Ghazālī claims that the ‘awām should not demand the sciences that are not suitable for their cognitive level and that they should leave them to competent people. In Islamic thought the dominant idea is that both wisdom and religion are presented in exo-teric and esoteric knowledge and that the learning of the esoteric way is only necessary for the khawāṣ. The aim of the ‘awām-khawāṣ distinction is to prevent misunderstanding that would arise when the knowledge would be conveyed to wrong people and thus to prevent the loss of truth by those who are not competent. The majority of Islamic thinkers call ‘awām as people of imagination, and khawāṣ as people of thought. They think that the methods of thinking and imagining should be taken into account when explaining the religious and philosophical truths. They have also emphasized the perfection of the prophetic style of addressing society. The symbols and metaphors that the prophets used to express religious truths or the metaphors and symbolic stories that are preferred by philosophers to tell some truths can be seen as a product of the distinction between ‘awām and khawāṣ. As it can be seen in the example of Ḥay bin Ya-qẓān, explaining the truth clearly to ‘awām may cause them to deviate from the right way. For this reason, it is necessary to tell the truth to people according to their level of understanding. It is possible to say that the ideas of Islamic thinkers about this distinction still remain important to-day, due to the fact that people have different dispositions and their level of understanding is not the same despite a change in time and place. Therefore, the disadvantage as pointed out by the Islamic thinkers is that the attempt to convey the truth to people may not be able to reach its exact purpose by ignoring this distinction. (shrink)

In recent years, decision-making processes related to medical practices have undergone a change from physician paternalism towards patient autonomy. However, it has been put forward that this situation has changed into or strengthened the parent paternalism for children. Parental paternalism might bring along decisions of refusing the child’s treatment, in such a way to occasionally violate the health right of the child. Paternalistic attitude of parents may also cause physicians to direct towards defensive medicine practices and to display a tendency (...) of avoiding legal liability rather than the benefit of the patient. Coming to the decision of the parent on refusing the child’s treatment together defensive medicine approach of the physician and an environment, where the legal protection mechanisms for the child are not efficient enough, causes serious violations of health rights. International contracts and national law require the protection of the child’s best interest in all cases. In that case, parent’s decision on refusing treatment of the child should be restricted within the scope of the child’s best interest and healthy life right. (shrink)

Türkiye'de din eğitimi bilimi, Ankara Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi'ndeki akademik disiplinler içinde doğmuş ve alanın ilk akademisyenleri bu fakültede yetişmiştir. Fakültenin açılışından uzun bir süre sonra kurulan Din Eğitimi Anabilim Dalı, yeni kurulan ilahiyat fakültelerinin din eğitimi akademisyenlerini yetiştirmede öncü rol oynamıştır. Bu makalede, alanında ilk ve lider olmasından dolayı Ankara Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi üzerine yoğunlaşılarak, din eğitiminin Türkiye'de bilimsel bir disiplin olarak gelişmesi tartışılmaktadır. Ayrıca, Türkiye'deki mevcut din eğitiminin genel kurumsal görünümü ile ilgili bilgi verilmektedir. Araştırmada, din eğitimi bölümünün tarihsel (...) gelişimini ortaya koymak amacıyla Ankara Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi arşivleri incelenmiştir. İlk elden bilgiler, Yönetim Kurulu, Profesörler ve Fakülte Kurulu karar defterlerinden alınmıştır. Din Eğitimi Bölümü'nün karakteristik özellikleri, bilimsel yönelimleri ve katkıları incelenirken, bölümün akademisyenleri tarafından yürütülen bilimsel çalışmalar ve onların lisans ve lisansüstü öğrencilerine atıfta bulunulmuştur. In this article, the theoretical and practical contributions concerning the rise and development of religious education science, its basic characteristics, orientations and fields as an academic discipline in Turkey are discussed. Religious education made its first step into academic disciplines at the Ankara University Divinity Faculty. And first academicians in the field of religious education were taught at this faculty. Department of Religious Education, which was established after a long time, took the lead in educating religious education academicians in newly established divinity faculties. Moreover; the end of this article, information is given in relation to the general institutional appearance of religious education in nowdays Turkey. During the research, in order to reveal the historical development of department of religious education, archives of Ankara University Divinity Faculty were examined. First-hand information was derived from decision books of Administrative, Professors and Faculty Board. When exploring the characteristic features, scientific orientations and contributions of Department of Religious Education, the scientific works carried out by department’s academicians and their graduate and postgraduate students were referred to. (shrink)

Temelini Harvard Üniversitesi’nde savunulan bir doktora tezinin oluşturduğu bu çalışma, Bizans hakkındaki Arap-İslam görüşünün yüzyıllar boyunca süren savaş, temas ve karşılıklı alışveriş ile geçirdiği evrim sürecinin bölgesel-tarihsel gelişmeler bağlamında izini sürmektedir. Kitap Giriş, Bizans’la karşılaşma, Bizans’ın karşısında durmak, İslam savunmada ve Yeni bir gerçeklik: Bizans’ı yeniden ziyaret başlıkları altında dört ana bölüm ve Sonuç kısmından oluşmaktadır. Başlıklardan da anlaşılacağı üzere, dört ana bölümün her biri nitelikleri belirgin dönemleri ele almaktadır. Bu yazıda da kitabın mevcut sistematiğine uyularak her bir kısım ayrı (...) ayrı ele alınmış, yazarın temel iddiaları özetlenmiş, seçme örnekler verilmiş ve tüm bunlar değerlendirilmiştir. (shrink)

The present article deals with the developments in Islamic theology in higher education in Europe with a focus on those in Germany. The main objectives of the study are to identify the developments regarding Islamic theology at European universities in recent years and to evaluate these developments in the context of the opportunities and problems. Since European states and nations, possessing Judeo-Christian-Western values, are in search of ways to enable Muslims to live in harmony with themselves due to the growing (...) Muslim share of the population throughout Europe. This issue has great importance for the future of Islam and Muslims in Europe. One aspect of these pursuits concerns the establishment academic programmes on/over Islamic theology at European universities. The question of “Is it possible to develop an interpretation of Islam that will live in harmony with European values?” is an important issue that is being focused on across Europe, especially in Germany. The academic studies of Islamic theology, addressing this question, started in the 2000s and has gained momentum over the past decade. Creating an understanding of Islam to live in peace with Western European values and educating people who will provide Islamic religious education and religious services within this scope are the main goals of the initiatives for introducing the Islamic theology programmes at European universities. The subject is addressed by the autobiographical methods in the light of many years of experience and the literature survey. (shrink)

Necip Fazıl Kısakürek, 20. Yüzyılın en önemli Türk şair ve düşünürlerinden biridir. İslami hareketin sembollerinden biri olmasına rağmen, popülaritesi sadece dindar kesimlerle sınırlı kalmamıştır. Ülke genelinde büyük bir üne kavuşmuş, farklı kültürel çevrelerden, değişik fikir akımlarına mensup hayranlara sahip olmuştur. Bu durum şairin ifadelerinin akıcılığı, edebi yeteneğinin gücü ve Türkçeyi hem şiir hem nesirde ustalıkla kullanmasından kaynaklanmaktadır. Onun velûd bir yazar niteliğiyle çok sayıda ürün vermiş olması yazdıklarının edebi değerini düşürmemiştir. Ayrıca gençliğinden beri farklı gazete ve dergilerde makaleler yazmıştır. Otuz (...) yılı aşkın bir süre "Büyük Doğu" mecmuasını yayımlamıştır. Aynı isimle bir yayınevi kurmuş ve yaklaşık yüz kitap neşretmiştir. Şair olarak divanlar yayımlamasının yanı sıra hikayeler, romanlar, piyesler telif etmiş, fikri, ahlaki ve siyasi yazılar yazmıştır. Otuz yaşına kadar “bohem” diye tavsif ettiği bir hayat sürmüş, ruhi boşluktan kurtulamamıştır. Sonrasında bir vesileyle tanıştığı döneminin tanınan medrese alimi ve mutasavvıf Abdülhakim Arvasi’den etkilenmiştir. Böylece köklü bir fikri dönüşüm yaşamış, İslami dünya görüşünü benimsemiştir. Bu merhaleden sonra çok çeşitliliğe sahip edebi ürünlerinin tümünde inanç ve fikirlerini cesaretle savunmayı gaye edinmiştir. Muhalif bir kimlikle döneminin devlet ricaline alenen tenkitler yönetmekten çekinmemiştir. Bu uğurda ortaya koyduğu mücadele sebebiyle resmi kovuşturmalara maruz kalmış, defalarca hapis yatmıştır. Edebi faaliyetlerini, fikir kavgası niteliğinde icra etmiş, vefatına kadar da bu çizgisini sürdürmüştür. Tüm bu özellikleri birçok çevrede saygın bir mevkiye sahip olmasını sağlamıştır. Türk edebiyatındaki bu etkili konumuna rağmen Necip Fazıl, hala Arap okuyucusu tarafından nispeten bilinmemektedir. Arap araştırmacıların şaire dair teşekküre şayan değerli araştırmalar ve makaleler telif etmiş olmalarına rağmen eserleri henüz hak ettiği seviyede Arap okuyucusuna tanıtılabilmiş değildir. Burada Türkçeden Arapçaya tercüme faaliyetlerinin çok güçlü olmamasının etkisi akla gelebilir. Ancak başka Türk edebiyatçıların kitaplarının Arapçaya tercüme edildiği dikkate alındığında Necip Fazıl’ın eserleri özelinde bir eksiklikten bahsetmek yanlış olmaz. Her halükârda edebi eserleri Arapçaya çevirenler için yazarın ürünleri zengin bir servet mahiyetindedir. Biz de bu bağlamda Necip Fazıl’ın “Çile” adlı kitabından bazı şiirleri Arapça tahlil ederek manzum halde bu dile çevirdik. Manzumelerde klasik Arap şiiri kaidelerini dikkate aldık. Aynı şiirleri nesir olarak da çevirdik ve anlaşılmalarını kolaylaştırmak için kısa açıklamalar ekledik. Orijinal olduğunu düşündüğümüz bu çalışmamızla, Türk edebiyatı metinlerini Arapçaya çevirerek alana katkıda bulunanlar arasında yer almayı umuyoruz. (shrink)

Background:Moral distress is a common problem among professionals working in the field of healthcare. Moral distress is the distress experienced by a professional when he or she cannot fulfill the correct action due to several obstacles, although he or she is aware of what it is. The level of moral distress experienced by nurses working in intensive care units varies from one country/culture/institution to another. However, in Turkey, there is neither a measurement tool used to assess moral distress suffered by (...) nurses nor a study conducted on the issue.Aim/objective:The study aims to (a) validate the Turkish version of the Moral Distress Scale–Revised to be used in intensive care units and to examine the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the scale, and (b) explore Turkish intensive care nurses’ moral distress level.Method:The sample of this methodological, descriptive, and cross-sectional design study comprises 200 nurses working in the intensive care units of internal medicine and surgical departments of four hospitals in three cities in Turkey. The data were collected with the Socio-Demographic Characteristics Form and The Turkish Version of Moral Distress Scale–Revised.Ethical considerations:The study proposal was approved by the ethics committee of the Faculty of Medicine, Cumhuriyet University. All participating nurses provided informed consent and were assured of data confidentiality.Results:In parallel with the original scale, Turkish version of Moral Distress Scale–Revised consists of 21 items, and shows a one-factor structure. It was determined that the moral distress total and item mean scores of the nurses participating in the study were 70.81 ± 48.23 and 3.36 ± 4.50, respectively.Conclusion:Turkish version of Moral Distress Scale–Revised can be used as a reliable and valid measurement tool for the evaluation of moral distress experienced by nurses working in intensive care units in Turkey. In line with our findings, it can be said that nurses suffered low level of moral distress. However, factors which caused the nurses in our study to experience higher levels of moral distress are inadequate communication within the team, working with professionals they considered as incompetent, and futile care. (shrink)

Background:Moral distress is a common problem among professionals working in the field of healthcare. Moral distress is the distress experienced by a professional when he or she cannot fulfill the correct action due to several obstacles, although he or she is aware of what it is. The level of moral distress experienced by nurses working in intensive care units varies from one country/culture/institution to another. However, in Turkey, there is neither a measurement tool used to assess moral distress suffered by (...) nurses nor a study conducted on the issue.Aim/objective:The study aims to (a) validate the Turkish version of the Moral Distress Scale–Revised to be used in intensive care units and to examine the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the scale, and (b) explore Turkish intensive care nurses’ moral distress level.Method:The sample of this methodological, descriptive, and cross-sectional design study comprises 200 nurses working in the intensive care units of internal medicine and surgical departments of four hospitals in three cities in Turkey. The data were collected with the Socio-Demographic Characteristics Form and The Turkish Version of Moral Distress Scale–Revised.Ethical considerations:The study proposal was approved by the ethics committee of the Faculty of Medicine, Cumhuriyet University. All participating nurses provided informed consent and were assured of data confidentiality.Results:In parallel with the original scale, Turkish version of Moral Distress Scale–Revised consists of 21 items, and shows a one-factor structure. It was determined that the moral distress total and item mean scores of the nurses participating in the study were 70.81 ± 48.23 and 3.36 ± 4.50, respectively.Conclusion:Turkish version of Moral Distress Scale–Revised can be used as a reliable and valid measurement tool for the evaluation of moral distress experienced by nurses working in intensive care units in Turkey. In line with our findings, it can be said that nurses suffered low level of moral distress. However, factors which caused the nurses in our study to experience higher levels of moral distress are inadequate communication within the team, working with professionals they considered as incompetent, and futile care. (shrink)

This article has been designed in the context of the religious education needs of parents with orthopedically disabled children and their views on the content and method of this religious education. The aim of the study is to reveal the religious education needs of parents with orthopedically disabled children and their views on the content and method of religious education from a descriptive point of view. In this study, one of the qualitative research methods case study was preferred. The study (...) group consists of 20 parents determined by the maximum diversity sampling, one of the purposive sampling methods. The data were analyzed by coding according to the themes and titles determined in the context of the problematic of the study with the descriptive analysis method. As a result of the study, it was determined that parents need religious education based on the opinions of the parents. Parents suggested that the content of religious education for them could be in the form of the convenience in which religion provides for the disabled, the place of disability in religion, the test and the contribution of belief in the hereafter to the disabled. Parents think that it would be beneficial to provide them with religious education by preparing books and brochures on disability and by organizing religious education programs at home and in rehabilitation center. (shrink)

Eski çağlardan beri siyasal şiddetin temel nedeninin gelir eşitsizliği olduğu ileri sürülmüştür. Bazı çalışmalar gelir eşitsizliği ve siyasal şiddet arasında hiçbir ilişkinin olmadığını belirtirken, bazıları ekonomik gelişme seviyesinin siyasal şiddetin daha güçlü bir belirleyicisi olduğunu savunmuşlardır. Göreceli yoksunluk tartışmaları ise yoksunluğun, uyarılmış hoşnutsuzluğun ve kolektif siyasal şiddetin çeşitli türleri arasında direk bir ilişki olduğunu savunurken kaynak seferberliği akımı; hoşnutsuzluk ve siyasal şiddet arasındaki direk bir ilişki varsayımını reddetmiştir. Rejim baskıcılığı ve siyasal şiddet arasındaki ilişkiyi saptamaya çalışan araştırmalarda ise; siyasal şiddetin (...) orta baskıcı bir rejim yapısı altında ortaya çıktığı görüşü savunulmuştur. Kısacası bu çalışma gelir eşitsizliği ve rejim baskıcılığındaki çeşitliliğin siyasal şiddet seviyesi üzerindeki etkisini inceleyerek kaynak seferberliğine karşı göreceli yoksunluk tartışmasıyla alakalı ulusa karşı bir veri analizi bildirmektedir. (shrink)

A case study was conducted to explore teachers? current technology use in elementary schools in Ankara, the capital of Turkey. The data were collected through a survey, and participants included 1030 classroom teachers across eight districts. The present study results revealed that significant challenges remain with regard to technology use in the classroom, even in the capital of Turkey, where teachers have advantages in terms of technology access and use compared to rural areas. The participant teachers used technologies most frequently (...) for lesson preparation activities, rather than for delivering instruction. Although the teachers felt that school principals and colleagues were usually supportive of technology use in lessons, they complained about insufficient professional development activities and incentives. Representing a snapshot of teachers? technology use in elementary school settings, this study sheds light on essential factors that should be considered in any technology integration process in schools. The study findings offer valuable insight for policy-makers and school leaders on how to support the technology integration process and allocate money for technology initiatives. (shrink)

Sociability is essential for modern robots to increase their acceptability in human environments. Traditional techniques use manually engineered utility functions inspired by observing pedestrian behaviors to achieve social navigation. However, social aspects of navigation are diverse, changing across different types of environments, societies, and population densities, making it unrealistic to use hand-crafted techniques in each domain. This paper presents a data-driven navigation architecture that uses state-of-the-art neural architectures, namely Conditional Neural Processes, to learn global and local controllers of the mobile (...) robot from observations. Additionally, we leverage a state-of-the-art, deep prediction mechanism to detect situations not similar to the trained ones, where reactive controllers step in to ensure safe navigation. Our results demonstrate that the proposed framework can successfully carry out navigation tasks regarding social norms in the data. Further, we showed that our system produces fewer personal-zone violations, causing less discomfort. (shrink)

It is the intention in this article to explain the electoral stagnation of the Republican People’s Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, CHP) in the light of the 2015 parliamentary elections in Turkey. Drawing on theories of voting behavior, the article uncovers the organizational shortcomings within the party and the problem of credibility that have emerged as significant impediments to the party in addressing long-term historical-structural issues, mainly the division of Turkish society between the religious periphery and the secular center. Furthermore, the (...) strong identification between the ruling Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) and its partisans have made party-switching difficult, having been achieved, above all, through the provision of economic benefits and public services and the consolidation of party identification through growing polarization and division in Turkish politics. Last but not least, the changes to the political environment between the June 7 and November 1, 2015 elections, pushed stability and security to the top of the agenda, as well as AKP’s electoral adjustments in the run-up to the November 1 elections inhibited any possible flow of votes to the CHP. (shrink)

This paper introduces a continuum microelectromagnetic theory (also called micromorphic electromagnetic theory), to discuss electromagnetic phenomena in bodies with microstructures. Balance laws of microelectromagnetic media of the first-grade are given. Constitutive equations are developed. The field equations are obtained . It has been shown that, this theory gives rise to several new vector and tensor waves. A theorem of conservation of energy (Poynting type) is proved. Dispersion relations are obtained for both vector and tensor waves. Relations of tensor waves to (...) microscopic phenomena (such as spin waves) are discussed. (shrink)

Sosyal bilimsel yaklaşımlar önemli ölçüde kültürel ayrımlara ve varsayımlara, kültürel ayrımlar ise örtük bir zaman tasavvuruna bağlıdır. Kültürün bir bileşeni olan zaman, gerçekliğin toplumsal ve tarihsel inşası sürecine dahildir. Toplumsal/tarihsel gerçekliğin incelenmesi adeta toplumun kurumsallaşmış unsurlarından biri olan zamanın da incelenmesini gerekli kılar. Kültürelci yaklaşımlarda zaman konusu bilhassa tarihselcilik ve eleştirisi bağlamında ele alınmaktadır. Tarihselciliği eleştiren ve buna alternatif teşkil eden yaklaşımlar da zaman tasavvuru ve bunun seçilen yönteme etkisi bakımından tarihselciliğin bazı ön kabullerini paylaşmaktadır. Bu alternatifler modernist sosyal bilimlerin (...) zaman algısına yönelik esaslı bir sorgulamadan uzaktır. Postmodernist sosyal bilimlerdeki mekân vurgusu ise ötekini ortak bir insanlık zamanının dışında konumlandırmaya dönük modernist varsayımın izlerini taşımaktadır. Bu çalışma zaman tasavvurunun sosyal bilimsel yönteme yansımalarına ve kültürel taksonominin zamanla ilişkisine dair eleştirel/anlayıcı bir perspektif sunmak ve yöntembilim tartışmalarında eksik kalan bu boyuta katkı sağlamak amacındadır. (shrink)