I will begin by proposing a taxonomy of taxonomic positions regarding the mind–brain: localism, globalism, revisionism, and contextualism, and will go on to focus on the last position. Although some versions of contextualism have been defended by various researchers, they largely limit themselves to a version of neural contextualism: different brain regions perform different functions in different neural contexts. I will defend what I call “environmental-etiological contextualism,” according to which the psychological functions carried out by various neural regions can only (...) be identified and individuated against an environmental context or with reference to a causal history. While this idea may seem innocuous enough, it has important implications for a structure-to-function mapping in the mind and brain sciences. It entails that the same neural structures can subserve different psychological functions in different contexts, leading to crosscutting psycho-neural mappings. I will try to illustrate how this can occur with reference to recent research on episodic memory. (shrink)

Second/foreign language teaching has been found as one of the most emotional professions worldwide. To generate optimal academic outcomes and run an effective education, teachers and students’ emotions and feelings must be positively cared for. Given the significance of emotions in L2 education, many studies have followed positive psychology and examined various positive constructs. Nevertheless, love, as a PP variable, has been ignored in education due to its cultural/religious sensitivities. Trying to dispel the myths, recently, a new trend called a (...) “loving pedagogy” has started to find itself a place in second language acquisition research and practice. Yet, proposing a model of its application and an agenda for its research has been overlooked by scholars in this domain. Motivated by this lacuna, this research article provided the conceptualization, definitions, research bases, practical models, and implications of a loving pedagogy for SLA practitioners and future researchers. (shrink)

Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, Volume 31, Issue 2, Page 453-473, April 2022.

Contemporary philosophers have largely neglected Richard Taylor’s design argument. Given that the initial responses to the argument were largely negative, one might be tempted to conclude that the argument is simply philosophically inadequate. This paper rejects that conclusion by showing how Taylor’s argument has been misunderstood by his critics. In defending Taylor, it is shown that the two types of objections levied against him fail to even blemish his design argument, let alone refute it. Consideration is also given to the (...) argument’s historical lineage, along with a proposal for future considerations of the connection between epistemological realism and design. (shrink)

Timetabling problems are specific types of scheduling problems that deal with assigning certain events to the timeslots. This assigning is subject to certain hard constraints that should be achieved to get a feasible timetable and soft constraints that must meet as many as possible during forming a feasible schedule. This paper introduces an adaptive tabu search. Eleven benchmark datasets of the year 2002 are applied to show the effectiveness of the introduced algorithm. These datasets consist of 5-small, 5-medium, and 1-large (...) dataset. As compared to other methods from previous works, the proposed algorithm produces excellent timetables, in comparison with the algorithms as well as the current results, the mathematical results showed the high effectiveness of the suggested algorithm. It has a minor deficit on the medium or the small problem adaptive Tabu, and the tabu search relies on the tabu list and penalty cost when the change in the penalty cost is checked; if it is still unchanged for the period of iterations (1,000 iterations), the tabu list reduces automatically by (−2); furthermore, the tabu list remains constant. (shrink)

Deizm başından beri kendini ana akım dinî kabullere karşı heterodoks dinî bir kimlik olarak konumlandırmış, felsefe ve teolojinin temel düşünce üretim alanları olan Tanrı tasavvurları, Allah-âlem ilişkisi, din-bilim ilişkisi, kötülük meselesinden kaynaklı ahlakî tartışmalarda geleneksel kabullere aykırı görüşler ileri sürmüştür. Bu yönüyle deizm, dinin kendi içinden bir eleştirisidir. İngiltere’de deizmin babası olarak isimlendirilen E. Herbert of Cherbury’nin deizmin beş ilkesi bu eleştirinin en başat örneğidir. Ona göre; 1. Yüce bir Tanrı vardır, 2. Bu yüce Varlığa ibadet edilmelidir, 3. Erdem ibadetin (...) yarattığı bir değer olduğu için din ve ahlak arasında doğrudan bir ilişki vardır, 4. İnsanlar zayıf yaratıldıkları için tövbe ihtiyacındadırlar; bu da Tanrı’yla iletişime açıklık demektir, 5. Ölümden sonraki hayatta ceza ve mükâfat vardır. Deizmin iddiaları zaman içinde değişikliğe uğramıştır. Bu değişimi, farklı deizm iddialarını tasnif eden ve eleştiren Samuel Clarke’ta görmek mümkündür. Bununla birlikte, deistler şu konularda ortak fikre sahiptirler: imanın kurtarıcılığına karşı bilginin kurtarıcılığı esastır; kurumsal dinî yapılar reddedilmelidir; akıl ve insan doğası yüceltilmelidir; ahlak akılla temellendirilebilir; (vahyin imkânını kabul eden deistlere göre) vahyin doğrusu ile aklın doğrusu uyum içinde olmalıdır. Türkiye’de deistler dini reddetmekten daha çok onun akılla uyumunu talep etmekte, hurafelerden arındırılmasını ve radikal söylemlerden temizlenmesini istemektedirler. Kurumsal dinî otorilerin yerine, insanın aklına ve doğasına yaslanan doğruları önermektedirler. Bu doktrin temeline ek olarak Türkiye’de deizm ilginç veriler ve sonuçlar üretmektedir. Türkiye’de muhafazakâr bir yönetim iş başındayken deizmin artış kaydetmesi çok çarpıcıdır. Kamusal alanda dinin daha fazla görünür olmasına rağmen, deizmin ve sekülerleşmenin artması, din-siyaset ilişkisinin çok sıkı kurulduğu ülkelerde dine yabancılaşma gibi bir sonucun ortaya çıktığı tezini bir kez daha doğrulamış görünmektedir. Bu çalışma deizmin farklı iddialarını dikkate alarak ve Türkiye’de lise öğrencileri arasında yapılan araştırmalara dayanarak şu sonuçları okuyucuyla paylaşmaktadır: Mezhep farklılığının tetiklediği şiddet, radikal söylemler, buyurgan din dili, mitolojik anlatımlar genç zihinleri geleneksel olarak tevarüs ettikleri birikimi yeniden değerlendirmeye itmektedir. Kendilerini dinin dışında konumlandırmak istemeyen bu zihinler, yeni bir dini kimliği tercih etmektedirler. Bu kimlik bugün artık heterodoks bir kimlik olarak kendini göstermektedir. Bu aynı zamanda sekülerleşmiş bir ortodoksinin ortaya çıktığının da açık göstergesidir. (shrink)

al-kitāb 1. al-Nasq al-ʻilmī lil-manẓūr al-ẓāhirī lil-ʻulūm al-ijtimāʻīyah -- al-kitāb 2. [Taṭbīqāt al-nasq al-ʻilmī lil-manẓūr al-ẓāhirī fī majāl al-ʻulūm al-ijtimāʻīyah].

The genome of two completely unrelated individuals is quite similar apart from minor variations called single nucleotide polymorphisms which contribute to the uniqueness of each and every person. These single nucleotide polymorphisms are of great interest clinically as they are useful in figuring out the susceptibility of certain individuals to particular diseases and for recognizing varied responses to pharmacological interventions. This gives rise to the idea of ‘personalized medicine’ as an exciting new therapeutic science in this genomic era. Personalized medicine (...) suggests a unique treatment strategy based on an individual’s genetic make-up. Its key principles revolve around applied pharmaco-genomics, pharmaco-kinetics and pharmaco-proteomics. Herein, the ethical and legal aspects of personalized medicine in a new genomic era are briefly addressed. The ultimate goal is to comprehensively recognize all relevant forms of genetic variation in each individual and be able to interpret this information in a clinically meaningful manner within the ambit of ethical and legal considerations. The authors of this article firmly believe that personalized medicine has the potential to revolutionize the current landscape of medicine as it makes its way into clinical practice. (shrink)

BackgroundHow do the police officers perceive health risk, psychological distress, and work stress during the COVID-19 outbreak in China? This study explores the health risk perception, work stress, and psychological distress of police officers who worked at the front line to implement lockdown measures.Materials and MethodsWe conducted a large-scale field survey with police officers sample in the northwestern part of China from February 29 to March 7, 2020. Independent-sample T-test and ANOVA were used to analyze whether there are differences in (...) health risk perception, work stress, and psychological distress between different groups. The regression analysis was employed to figure out the factors that influence police officers’ psychological distress.ResultsResults showed a gender difference in perceiving work stress among police officers. Also, police officers with chronic disease perceived higher health risks, more psychological distress, and higher work stress. Additionally, police officers above 45 years old significantly perceived higher health risks than young officers did. It also revealed that working hours contribute to police officers’ health risk perception, psychological distress, and work stress. Finally, our results highlight that age, working hours, chronic disease, health risk perception, and work stress significantly contribute to police officers’ psychological distress.ConclusionOur research verifies that there is a gender difference in perceiving work stress among police officers. Police officers with ongoing medical issues and above 45 years old suffer more during the COVID-19 outbreak in China. Our research suggests that the government should pay more attention to their physical health and mental health. The heavy workload containing the COVID-19 extends police officers’ working hours, causing higher health risks, work stress, and psychological distress. This study contributes to the psychological distress literature and provides a way forward to other countries struggling to contain the COVID-19. (shrink)

This article examines the role of scepticism in the Islamic philosophical tradition. It begins with a treatment of the origins and purpose of these discussions in classical kalām (c. 800–1100 CE). Then it moves on to the more mature discussions treating five forms of scepticism in the post‐classical period (c.1200–1800 CE), with the aim of demonstrating how they construed scepticism, the arguments for and against it, and what purposes scepticism played in their system. Three of these types of scepticism are (...) unrestricted, meaning that their denial of knowledge is universal. The other two types are restricted to a denial of inferential knowledge, either entirely, or in certain subjects such as metaphysics and natural philosophy. The discussion will focus on two of the most widely studied works of kalām: Saʿd al‐Din al‐Taftāzānī's Sharḥ al‐ʿAqāʾid al‐Nasafiyya and Jalāl al‐Dīn al‐Dawānī's Sharḥ al‐ʿAqāʾid al‐ʿAḍudiyya, including some of their super‐commentaries. (shrink)

Source: Author: Mohammad Sabahi Bidgoli, Ali Kebriaei, Sayed Gholamabas Moosavi Background and Aim: Patients' viewpoints are commonly used to assess quality of care in diverse healthcare organizations. This permits managerial decisions to be made based on knowledge rather than conjecture. The purpose of the current study is to investigate quality gap of family health care through measuring differences between clients’ perceptions and expectations at Kashan city health centers in Iran.Methodology: A cross-sectional design was applied in 2013. The study sample was (...) composed of 384 women clients of family health services randomly selected from Kashan city health centers. The SERVQUAL questionnaire was used for data collection. Service quality gap was measured by computing the difference between the rating respondents assign to expectations and perceptions statements. For pair wise comparison of the expectations and perceptions the Wilcoxon Signed Rank test was used. Internal consistency of the scale was confirmed with Cronbach's Alpha coefficients.Findings: In all dimensions of the services a significant (P ]]>. (shrink)

İbâdet, bütün akıl sahibi varlıkların Allah'ın varlığını idrak edebilme ve O'na karşı şükretme duygusu olarak tanımlanır. İbadet eylemini incelemek, ibadet edenin doğasını tahlil etmeyi gerektirir. Bu tahlil bizi ibadet eylemine eşlik eden bilgi/kavrayış, niyet/yönelimsellik ve sürecin sonunda ortaya çıkan özgürlükle buluşturur. Bilgi/kavrayış, Kur'an'ın ibâdet olarak işaret ettiği ilişki formuna en derin mânâyı verir. İbadet, Tanrı'nın mutlak yaratıcı iradesini keşfetme ve ona insanî seviyede eşlik etme arzusudur. Allah’ın varlığını ve birliğini bilmeye yapılan çağrı, ibadetin bilgi ve niyet unsuruna en üst seviyede (...) yapılan daveti içerir. Bu davete icabet sırasında devreye giren semboller ve her bir eyleme ibadet sırasında yüklenen anlam, insan yaşamında yeni olgulara hayat verir. Niyet yahut yönelimsellik ise, insanların parçası oldukları doğal nedensel bağları aşma arzusunu içinde barındırır. İnsanın verili olan bu düzeni ve illiyyet bağını aşarak kendine yeni bir ufuk arama çabası ibadetin niyetle ilgili kısmında içerilir. İbadet bir tanınma talebidir. Sonlu varlığın sonluluğunu ve sınırlılığını aşma arzusunu tatmin etmeyi amaçlayan bir ‘ilişki’ eylemidir. Sonlu ile Sonsuz arasındaki bu ilişkinin bilgi zemininde inşa edilmesi, Allah ile insan arasındaki sınırın bulanıklaşmasını değil tam tersine daha belirgin hale gelmesini sağlar. İbadetteki bilme, bilen öznenin her zaman bu sınırların farkında olması demektir. Niyet, sonlu varlığın Sonsuz olanla iletişime geçerek sonluluğun getirdiği değer yitimini dindirme arzusudur. Özgürlük ise sonlu varlığın Sonsuz Olan’la iletişimi yoluyla, kendisini çepeçevre kuşatan bütün kısıtlama ve dayatmalardan azade olma isteğidir. Allah’tan başkasına tapanların bir düşüş, parçalanma ve kayboluş trajedisi yaşamalarının sebebi her zaman bir kısıtın ve dayatmanın nesnesine dönüşmüş olmasındandır. Onun için Allah ısrarla ibadetin sadece kendine yapılmasını talep ederek bu trajediyi bloke etmek istemektedir. İbadetin kabulü için nasıl ibadetten önce yerine getirilmesi gereken şartlar, ibadet sırasında takip edilmesi gereken rükünler varsa, aynı şekilde ibadetten sonra yerine getirilmesi gereken şartlar vardır. Bunlar yapılan ibadetin gerçekten ibadet niteliğine sahip olup olmadığını denetleyen ibadet sonrası kriterlerdir; bu ibadetin fenomenolojisidir: İbadet bireyi kendi iç dünyasında bir itmi’nana kavuşturmalı, kamusal alanda ise ahlakî bir özne olarak inşa etmelidir. (shrink)

Islamic Bioethics presents a wide variety of perspectives and debates on how Islamic societies deal with the ethical dilemmas raised by biomedicine and new technologies. The book is a "constructive dialogue" between contributors selected from a multidisciplinary group of Muslim and non-Muslim scholars from different Islamic countries. The 11 chapters illuminate the diversity and complexity of the issues discussed in Islamic bioethics and pave the way to a better understanding of Islamic bioethics and dialogue in the global bioethics community. The (...) chapters take both theoretical and practical approaches to the topic, and each covers an emerging issue in Islamic bioethics. This book will be useful for academics and professional institutions in both Islamic and non-Islamic countries, and will be instrumental in providing researchers, scholars, students, policymakers and medical professionals with access to the latest issues and debates related to Islamic bioethics. Contributors include: Tariq Ramadan, Abdallah Daar, Ali Albar, Mohsin Ebrahim, Baharouddin Azizan Alastair Campbel, Bagher Larijani, Carol Taylor, Gamal Serour, James Rusthoven, Ilhan Ilkilic, Ingrid Mattson, Hassan Chamsi-Pasha, Jonathan Crane, Hakan Ertin, Mehunisha Suleman. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is to shed some light on the Philosophical relationship between humanities and technology. It will be explained that most disciplines in humanities are Janus-faced: they are part science/knowledge and part technology. The thesis of the paper is that the relationship between the technological aspect of humanities and other technologies is positive and synergetic, while the relationship between their scientific aspect and technologies is almost entirely critical and negative. The argument of the paper is not that (...) the scientific aspect of humanities has nothing positive to offer to the development of technologies, but rather to clarify the nature of this assistance. It is also hoped that the paper’s analysis could help to explain how the scientific aspect of humanities can partake in the process of rationalisation of the development of technology. (shrink)

Interventional clinical studies of convalescent plasma to treat COVID-19 were predominantly funded and led by public sector actors, including blood services operators. We aimed to analyze the processes of clinical studies of convalescent plasma to understand alternatives to pharmaceutical industry biopharmaceutical research and development, particularly where public sector actors play a dominant role. We conducted a qualitative, critical case study of purposively sampled prominent and impactful clinical studies of convalescent plasma during 2020-2021.

This paper presents an examination of the relationship between the presence and composition of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) committee on the corporate governance board and CSR decoupling. Using a sample of listed firms drawn from 41 countries, we found that the presence of a CSR committee on the corporate board is negatively associated with CSR decoupling. We also noted that the nature of the industry to which a firm belongs, a firm's level of CSR orientation, and corporate governance quality (...) strengthen such association. Further analysis of the relationship between the structure of the CSR committee and CSR decoupling shows that larger CSR committee size and a greater independence and longer tenure of its members negatively affect CSR decoupling. Our results are robust to various alternative specifications and offer important research and managerial implications. The findings of this study contribute to the growing literature on corporate governance and CSR. (shrink)

Philosophical writings on thought and reality.

يتحدث هذا الكتاب عن مفهوم المقاومة بمعناه الواسع، فليست المقاومة مرهونة فقط بالعنف والرصاص والدم، ولا محصورة في خوض المعارك وممارسة القتال. فإذا كانت مقاومة المستعمر والمحتل والمغتصب هي الأبرز والأعلى صوتًا، فإن هناك جبهات أخرى تدور عليها المواجهة لا تقل أهمية عن التصدي للمستعمر، وصيانة استقلال الوطن وحريته. وأولى هذه الجبهات، مقاومة الحاكم الجائر لرده عن الظلم والطغيان، ودفعه إلى إقامة العدل الذي هو أساس الملك. وتأخذ هذه المقاومة أشكالًا متعددة عبر التاريخ، منها ما لجأ إلى أقصى درجات العنف (...) والدم كالثورتين الفرنسية والبلشيفية، ومنها ما كان مقاومة سلبية نجحت في تحقيق الغرض منها من دون أي عنف مثل حركة المقاومة التي قادها الزعيم الهندي الخالد غاندي ضد الاحتلال الإنجليزي لبلاده. والجبهة الثانية للمقاومة هي مقاومة الأفكار المتخلفة والتقاليد البالية، وهذه الجبهة هي الأكثر تأثيرًا على مدى التاريخ الإنساني؛ فعطاء المفكرين والعلماء والمبعدين لا يحدث تغييرًا فوريَّا، ولكن يكون تأثيره متتاليًا ومتراكمًا على مدى زمني طويل على حركة المجتمع نحو التقدم الأخلاقي والاجتماعي. أما الجبهة الثالثة فهي مقاومة أو مجاهدة النفس التي هي أمارة بالسوء، والحرص على ألا تفقد النفس نخوتها فتسقط في التبلد واللامبالاة، والعمل على بناء النفس الواثقة الثابتة الوفية الصابرة، مما يجعل صاحبها سويًّا وإيجابيًّا بما يمكنه من أن يؤدي دوه باقتدار على جبهات المقاومة الأخرى. (shrink)

The term ra ḥ ma/mercy is one of the key terms of the Holy Qur’ ā n and it has many connotations. Two names of God, ra ḥ mān and ra ḥ ῑm and their manifestations are contained in these connotations. So the two names explicitly tackled in our paper. While ra ḥ mān is the proper name indicating the absolute being and the source of all existence, ra ḥ ῑm is much narrower. The exegetical tradition emphasizes that God is (...) ra ḥ mān, i.e. provides existence and sustenance to all creatures in this world while ra ḥ ῑm gives guidance and salvation to those who just deserve it here. Ra ḥ mān and ra ḥ ῑm are used in the Qur’ān asyndetonically, i.e. without the copula wāw ( ﻭ ): in the form of ar-ra ḥ mān ar-ra ḥ ῑm not ar-ra ḥ mān va ’r- ra ḥ ῑm, indicating that these two names signify One (God) and that they appear in His actions simultaneously and instantaneously, not consecutively. Key Terms: Ra ḥ ma/mercy; rule of mercy; principle of hope; divine assistance; heaven and hell. (shrink)

Søren Kierkegaard, in his essay "The Present Age," takes a hostile stance towards the press. This is because he maintains that the press prepares the ground for the emergence of nihilism. Hubert Dreyfus extends this idea to other information technologies, especially the Internet. Since Kierkegaard-Dreyfus’ attitude towards various forms of information technology originates from philosophical anthropology and a particular conception of the meaning of life, assessing the viability of the attitude they hold requires further critical scrutiny. This paper aims to (...) show that, although, Kierkegaard’s and Dreyfus' insights are important in understanding the dangers of information technology their approach concerning the meaning of life and human identity is a one-sided analysis of the problem situation; In particular, their reliance on "Unconditional Commitment" could bring about new undesired consequences. This paper emphasizes that an appropriate stance towards information technology needs, among other things, a richer and more effective philosophical anthropology; one that by utilizing religious-moral wisdom in a sensible manner, provides an effective way to safely benefit from various types of technology without falling into the abyss of nihilism. The paper further argues that we also need to provide an institutional control of technology through piecemeal social engineering in a democratic process. (shrink)

This study applied an artifact-centric view to investigate the consequences of enterprise social media usage. It investigates how enterprise social media usage influences employee creativity. A moderated mediation model is developed based on social exchange theory. The empirical sample of 238 employees is used to test the proposed model. Results of the empirical analysis performed using PROCESS macro of SPSS indicate that enterprise social media usage positively impacts employee creativity via the mediating mechanisms. Furthermore, social media usage frequency negatively moderates (...) this impact of enterprise social media usage on employee creativity via leader-member exchange. Interestingly, the empirical analysis reveals that the impact of enterprise social media usage frequency strengthens the indirect effect that enterprise social media usage has on employee creativity via perceived support for innovation. (shrink)

Internet-enabled technologies have provided a way for people to communicate and collaborate with each other. The collaboration and communication made crowdsourcing an efficient and effective activity. Crowdsourcing is a modern paradigm that employs cheap labors for accomplishing different types of tasks. The task is usually posted online as an open call, and members of the crowd self-select a task to be carried out. Crowdsourcing involves initiators or crowdsourcers, the crowd, crowdsourcing task, the process, and the crowdsourcing platform where requesters offer (...) various tasks and crowd workers complete these tasks. As the crowdsourcing is carried out in the online environment, it gives rise to certain challenges. The major problem is the selection of crowd that is becoming a challenging issue with the growth in crowdsourcing popularity. Crowd selection has been significantly investigated in crowdsourcing processes. Nonetheless, it has observed that the selection is based only on a single feature of the crowd worker which was not sufficient for appropriate crowd selection. For addressing the problem of crowd selection, a novel “ant colony optimization-based crowd selection method” is presented in this paper that selects a crowd worker based on multicriteria features. By utilizing the proposed model, the efficiency and effectiveness of crowdsourcing activity will be increased. (shrink)