A wide range of archaeological finds is rapidly expanding our knowledge of the pre-Islamic cultural milieu and the political structures of the Arabian Peninsula during Late Antiquity, and thereby of the Qurʾān’s cultural context. This material can offer a complementary reading to the literary accounts on pre-Islamic Arabia, which were mostly composed outside of Arabia or long after the late antique period. There is a growing need to make the recent exciting discoveries of scholars working on the Qurʾān and Arabia (...) more widely accessible to historians who may not have a solid background in archaeology and epigraphy. As such, the ERC project “The Qur'an as a Source for Late Antiquity” (QaSLA) organized a conference, titled “Epigraphy, the Qur'an, and the Religious Landscape of Arabia”, which took place in Tübingen on 8 – 10 September 2022. The three-day international conference brought together specialists in epigraphy as well as scholars of the Qurʾān to explore how recent epigraphic and archaeological findings and research have been changing our understanding of the Qurʾān and the Arabian religious, cultural, and political landscape. Accordingly, the conference sought to integrate new archaeological finds with ongoing studies on the genesis of the Qurʾān, its Arabian background, and the broader cultural milieu of pre-Islamic Arabia with a special focus on the dawn of Islam. The conference also featured an important contribution by Peter Webb on pre-Islamic poetry, another neglected corpus of inquiry into the history of pre-Islamic Arabia. Aiming to foster discussion between scholars, each panel was paired with a specialist on the Qurʾān or the wider history of Arabia. (shrink)

La mentoría como programa de formación en el inicio de la vida profesional del docente principiante se presenta como una oportunidad para la mejora de la calidad de las instituciones educativas y de sus agentes. Al mismo tiempo, revierte sobre la comunidad y el territorio donde se ubica. En contextos reconocidos como vulnerables se necesitan agentes educativos vocacionales y con un alto nivel de resiliencia, y con una meta clara: formar a personas plenas que contribuyan con su sentir, ser y (...) hacer al desarrollo de la comunidad en la que habitan. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Journal of the History of Ideas 62.2 (2001) 335-358 [Access article in PDF] Between East and West: Hegel and the Origins of the Russian Dilemma Ana Siljak Nikolai Berdiaev, the eminent twentieth-century Russian philosopher, wrote that the "problem of East and West" was an "eternal" one for Russia. 1 Attempting to make sense of the violent upheavals that shook Russia in 1917, Berdiaev believed that the source of Russian (...) troubles lay in the "inconsistency of the Russian spirit" due to the "conflict of the Eastern and Western elements in her." 2 Russia, he argued, always contained within its wide territory an invisible and shifting border between two continents, and thus Russian society was forever torn between two cultures. Berdiaev insisted that Russia could not discover its true calling or its place in the world until it resolved its internal conflict between East and West. 3Berdiaev was contemplating the course of the nineteenth century, when Russia's geographical destiny had deeply troubled Russian intellectuals. In the late 1830s Russian thinkers began their minute analyses of cultural and historical sources, hoping to determine the essential character of their nation and believing that their research would enable them to predict Russia's future. Often, diverse questions of progress and stagnation, tradition and innovation, and the individual and society were all framed within this overarching problem of East versus West.It is tempting to see this Russian dilemma as longstanding and natural, given Russia's position between two continents. Indeed, many recent scholars have argued that Russian encounters with Asia, taking place within the framework of Russia's territorial expansion eastward, forced Russians to examine their relationships [End Page 335] with the Eastern, Asian world. 4 It is true that European geographers and historians have debated the location of the border between Asia and Europe since the Middle Ages. But before the nineteenth century this ambiguity hardly troubled Russian minds. The Muscovite state of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, for example, was well acquainted with cultures and lands to its East, engaging in trade and diplomatic relations with Muslim Tatars and others. Yet there is little evidence to suggest that Muscovy was concerned about its position between Eastern and Western countries. 5 Even Peter the Great, whom historians have credited for bringing European customs into Russia, was little concerned with the European/Asian divide in Russian culture. For him the most important geographical question was Russia's place among the northern states, and he was particularly obsessed with Sweden as Russia's primary military rival. 6After Peter's reign, educated Russians, as they became increasingly acquainted with Western European culture, experienced their first pangs of envy and self-doubt in the face of perceived European superiority. Nonetheless, throughout the eighteenth century few cultured Russians had trouble embracing a diverse historical legacy and national character--German, Slavic, Asian. After all, Europeans themselves were proud of their barbarian past. Peter the Great's chief historian, V. N. Tatishchev, wrote with full confidence and little concern that the Russian empire was located "in both Europe and Asia," noting that though more Russian people lived in Europe, Russia had more territory in Asia. In passing he mentioned that "where the border between these two large and most important cultures is located, no one has as yet determined for certain." 7 According to him, the Slavic people as a whole could be divided into Asian and European branches, thus both cultures were of importance in Russian history. 8The first of the great nineteenth-century Russian historians, Nikolai Karamzin, was proud of Russia's diverse heritage. Russia, he wrote, [End Page 336] raising its head between the Asiatic and European kingdoms, represented within its civic life the characteristics of these two parts of the world: a mixture of old Eastern customs, brought by the Slavs into Europe and renewed, so to speak, by our long connection with the Mongols; Byzantine customs borrowed by the Russians along with the Christian religion, and some German customs imparted by the Varangians.... 9This cultural "mixture... (shrink)

Socio-cultural shifts during the 1960s and 1970s included widespread secularization, challenges to authority and tradition, and an emphasis on individual choice. Healthcare and biomedical research advances accompanied these social changes, giving rise to numerous ethical and policy questions. The contemporary bioethics project emerged in this context with (at least) three aims: (1) to offer practical answers to these questions (often) in ways that (2) facilitate or support particular practices or goals (e.g., organ donation or human research) and that (3) appear (...) broadly applicable and legitimately enforceable. Philosophical thinking, which involves investigating and disambiguating concepts and categories, articulating conceptually clear definitions, and mapping arguments to identify premises, detect fallacies, and describe their logical implications, can undermine the practical goals of the bioethics project. This tension between the goals of bioethics and philosophical thinking might help to explain what some scholars see as a disinterest in philosophical thinking in bioethics today. (shrink)

The problem sketched here in a non-conformist phenomenological manner concerns the transition from the theory of the self-sufficient individual to the theories of the social character of human being, and to the theoretical possibility to control the social asymmetries opposing to its fulfilment.

The term ‘culture wars’ has been used to describe deep, apparently intractable, disagreements between groups for many years. In contemporary discourse, it refers to disputes regarding significant moral matters carried out in the public square and for which there appears to be no way to achieve consensus or compromise. One set of battle lines is drawn between those who hold traditional Christian commitments and those who do not. Christian bioethics is nested in a set of moral and metaphysical understandings that (...) collide with those of the dominant secular culture. The result is a gulf between a moral life and an approach to bioethics framed in the face of a transcendent God and a final judgment versus a moral life and an approach to bioethics framed as if the world were without ultimate meaning and as if death were the end of personal existence. These approaches are separated by a moral and metaphysical gulf that sustains incompatible life worlds and incompatible understandings of bioethics. Attempts to bridge the gulf with secular reason are ineffective because there is no shared conception of reason or standard of evidence. Efforts to use the state to enforce a particular set of metaphysical and moral commitments, whether secular or religious, lead to public disputes with a war-like character. (shrink)

“Outsiders” addressing ethical issues in medicine—Strangers at the Bedside —became “bioethicists.” Bioethicists providing research ethics consultation have been described as “stranger...

Although the concept of human nature may seem problematic, its a-historical essentialism can be used to show the fall of modern European philosophy into the historical pit of unsolvable contradictions. This paper explores the problems of logical contradictions between the modern and universalistic concept of human nature and the discriminative model of inferior-superior humans, mainly illustrated by racism. First, this paper shows that the concept of human nature is valid beyond the arguments related to evolution and social contexts, although the (...) human nature is modelled by them, and that the concept is not opposed to the specific cultural peculiarities of different human communities. Furthermore, common elements of racism both at the moment of its creation and nowadays suggest a radical possibility for resolving the antagonisms between the thesis of universality in the human being and the thesis of the particularity of unique cultures. (shrink)

The World Bank estimates that over one billion people currently lack official identity documents. To tackle this crucial issue, the United Nations included the aim to provide legal identity for all by 2030 among the Sustainable Development Goals. Technology can be a powerful tool to reach this target. In the digital age, new technologies increasingly mediate identity verification and identification of individuals. Currently, State-led and public–private initiatives use technology to provide official identification, to control and secure external borders, and to (...) distribute humanitarian aid to populations in need. All of these initiatives have profound implications for the protection of human rights of those affected by them. Digital identity technologies may render individuals without legal documentation more visible and therefore less vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. However, they also present risks for the protection of individuals' human rights. As they build on personal data for identification and identity verification, data protection and privacy rights are most clearly affected. The prohibition of discrimination in the digital space is also of concern as these technological advances' societal impact is not yet fully understood. Accordingly, the article argues that emerging digital identity platforms will only contribute to the protection of human rights if the providers adequately mitigate any risks of potential discrimination and promote high standards of privacy and data protection. (shrink)

The technological solutions adopted during the current pandemic will have a lasting impact on our societies. Currently, COVID-19 health status certificates are being deployed around the world, including in Europe, the United States and China. When combined with identity verification, these digital and paper-based certificates allow individuals to prove their health status by showing recent COVID-19 tests results, full vaccination records or evidence of recovery from COVID-19. Most countries in the Global South, where vaccination rates are low, have not yet (...) fully implemented such certificates, although several initiatives are currently underway. That is, for instance, the case in the African Union. Yet, it is not sufficient to develop technical solutions for the verification of COVID-19 health status. Because technologies do not evolve in a legal vacuum, the existing laws and regulations must be respected. The risks of implementing such technologies must be anticipated and mitigated as much as possible before any large-scale deployment. Risk mitigation should also underpin strategies throughout the deployment of these certificates. This article evaluates the key legal implications of COVID-19 health status certificates for data privacy and human rights. In doing so, it contributes to the current debates, thus informing policymakers in this area of vital national and international interest. (shrink)

THEOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS ON IMMIGRATION HAVE LARGELY FOCUSED ON mandates to love the stranger and protect human rights. The U.S. and Mexican bishops' pastoral letter "Strangers No Longer" is no different. However, this ethical focus leaves Christians without sufficient theological guidance when seeking to balance concern for immigrants and U.S. citizens alike. This essay examines undocumented immigration to the United States through the lens of the common good, using a contemporary Catholic feminist understanding of the common good. It examines the impact (...) of immigration on this country and makes policy recommendations that are consistent with the common good. Many of the recommendations are consonant with the bishops' recommendations, but one important recommendation missed by the bishops is that efforts to promote a liberal immigration policy must be accompanied by efforts to promote just wages and working conditions for all low-wage U.S. workers. (shrink)

Issues of institutional identity and integrity in Roman Catholic health care institutions have been addressed at the level of individual institutions as well as by organizations of Catholic health care providers and at various levels in the Church hierarchy. The papers by Carol Taylor, C.S.F.N, Thomas Shannon, Kevin O’Rourke, O.P., Gerard Magill in this volume provide a significant contribution to concerns of Roman Catholic health care institutions as they face the challenges of providing health care in a secular, pluralistic, market-driven (...) economy. One way to understand institutional integrity is as a measure of the coherence between what an institution identifies as its commitments (its stated moral character), what an institution does (its manifest moral character) and an institution’s fundamental moral commitments (its deep moral character). The essays in this volume support this model of integrity. Although it is not their explicit focus, the four essays together provide a vision of institutional integrity for Catholic health care institutions. Each author focuses on one of the three central aspects of integrity: what one identifies as one’s commitments (Taylor), how one's actions reflect one’s values (Shannon and Magill), and what one is or what one values at a deep level (O’Rourke). I will offer a brief overview of the ways in which the integrity of Catholic health care institutions has been addressed. Then I will consider the four essays and show how each offers an analysis of one of the three critical elements of integrity. (shrink)

This article analyzes the physical theory presented by Pierre Bayle in the new Spanish translation of Various Thoughts on the Occasion of the Comet. First, it deals with his critcism of the supertitous aspects of tradition, and subsequently, it analyzes his position, inspired by Descartes, regarding the physical nature of comets as opposed to the aristotelian cosmology, trough the analysis of five key issues: influence of distance, propagation of light, interaction between particles, difference between systems and problem of qualities.

The political discourse of Rafael Caldera and Carlos Andrés Pérez is here analyzed. Thess leaders share features in exercising power as presidents of Venezuela, and in their being members of the traditional political parties that ruled the country in the second half of the XXth century. A crit..

In Words and Meaning in Metasemantics, Juan José Colomina-Almiñana argues that language meaning determination requires close attention to the constant interaction between speech communities, speaker's intentions, and the audience's uptakes.

* Doutora em Educação pela Universidade Estadual de Campinas. Professora na Universidade Estadual do Ceará. E-mail: [email protected]. ** Doutor em Sociologia pela Universidade Federal do Ceará. Professor titular da Faculdade de Educação da Universidade Federal do Ceará. Professor-pesquisador do convênio de colaboração entre a l’Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, a linha de pesquisa Marxismo, educação e luta de classes do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação Brasileira da Universidade Federal do Ceará e o Mestrado Acadêmico Intercampi em Educação e Ensino, da Universidade (...) Estadual do Ceará. Professor-pesquisador do Convênio de Colaboração entre o Programa de Mestrado em Antropologia de Iberoamérica da Universidade de Salamanca e Linha de Pesquisa Marxismo, Educação e Luta de Classes do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação Brasileira da Universidade Federal do Ceará. E-mail: [email protected]. Resumo: O texto problematiza a legitimação das Artes como campo de saber nos currículos de cursos de Pedagogia. Reflete, pois, sobre formação inicial de pedagogos e o repertório artístico-cultural desses profissionais para atenderem às demandas escolares referentes ao ensino de Artes. Tomamos como base de fundamentação teórica, principalmente, a noção de campo de Bourdieu e sua idéia de consagração desse campo como um processo constituído relacionalmente. O trabalho traduz um estudo bibliográfico imerso no campo da Educação, guiado, entretanto, por reflexões sustentadas em observações e vivências estético-pedagógicas no âmbito da formação inicial docente, numa universidade pública estadual brasileira. Com o estudo, infere-se que à universidade cabe a responsabilidade estratégica de garantir a ampliação de componentes curriculares que abranjam saberes em Artes.Palavras-chave: Campo de saber. Artes. Formação de pedagogos. The field of artistic knowledge in the training curriculum of pedagogos and its echo in schools: The text problematizes the legitimization of the Arts as a field of knowledge in the curricula of Pedagogy courses. It reflects, therefore, on the initial formation of pedagogues and the artistic-cultural repertoire of these professionals to attend to the school demands related to the teaching of Arts. We take as theoretical basis mainly the notion of Bourdieu's field and his idea of ​​consecration of this field as a process constituted relationally. The work translates a bibliographic study immersed in the field of Education, guided, however, by reflections sustained in observations and aesthetic-pedagogical experiences in the scope of initial teacher training, in a Brazilian state public university. With the study, it is inferred that the university has the strategic responsibility to guarantee the expansion of curricular components that cover knowledge in Arts.Keywords: Field of knowledge. Arts. Formation of pedagogues. El campo de saber artístico en los curriculos de formación de pedagogos y su eco en las escuelas Resumen: El texto problematiza la legitimación de las Artes como campo de saber en los currículos de cursos de Pedagogía. Refleja, pues, sobre formación inicial de pedagogos y el repertorio artístico-cultural de esos profesionales para atender a las demandas escolares referentes a la enseñanza de Artes. Tomamos como base de fundamentación teórica principalmente la noción de campo de Bourdieu y su idea de consagración de ese campo como un proceso constituido relacionalmente. El trabajo traduce un estudio bibliográfico inmerso en el campo de la Educación, guiado, sin embargo, por reflexiones sostenidas en observaciones y vivencias estético-pedagógicas en el ámbito de la formación inicial docente, en una universidad pública estatal brasileña. Con el estudio, se infiere que a la universidad cabe la responsabilidad estratégica de garantizar la ampliación de componentes curriculares que abarquen saberes en Artes.Palabras Clave: Campo de saber. Artes. Formación de pedagogos. Data de registro: 15/02/2019Data de aceite: 23/04/2020. (shrink)

The precautionary principle when applied in the context of international law, it should be noted that this is a legal system that contains rules and principles often fragmented, which may not always be interpreted in a harmonious and coherent way. The contribution of the precautionary principle, is its role to reinforce certain legal standards enacted not only in various international treaties, but also in particular statements relating to, environmental protection, health, sustainable development, trade and food security, among others, when there (...) is uncertainty about the risks and irreparable damages should be avoided, especially for the future generations. (shrink)

O objetivo da pesquisa é apresentar embates e discutir perspectivas sobre a atualidade do conceito de indústria cultural para analisar o uso do smartphone e seus derivados e sua relação com a compreensão leitora e a construção de sentido. A questão que norteia a pesquisa é: Após o término da educação básica e diante do uso constante da linguagem imagética presente nos conteúdos acessados pelos smartphones e seus derivados, é possível o sujeito fazer uma leitura, de forma crítica e dialética (...) de, por exemplo, uma charge? Em que medida, isso poderia ocorrer? A hipótese da pesquisa é que, ao realizar a leitura no aparato, a palavra perde relevância comparada à imagem que é percebida, visualizada, mais do que pensada/entendida e o seu conceito se reduz a uma função icônica. Por isso, o campo semântico se limita a associações automáticas e, dessa forma, operacionalizam-se as leituras. A pesquisa empírica realizada foi desenvolvida com a participação de estudantes com idades entre 17 e 19 anos, ou seja, que já concluíram a educação básica e ingressaram em uma universidade. O instrumento de pesquisa aplicado foi uma questão escrita a partir de uma charge com um assunto vinculado ao dia a dia dos participantes e, uma entrevista previamente formulada. (shrink)

La novela de Ishiguro _ Nunca me abandones _ (2005) suele calificarse de distópica, asumiendo que refleja una inaceptable injusticia al plantear la explotación de clones de humanos, ‘donadores’ de órganos para sus humanos originales. Empero, el concepto de distopía no puede caracterizar la situación descrita de manera absoluta, pues para la humanidad original realmente no hay un mal funcionamiento social; por su parte, a pesar de padecer enajenación orgánica y la restricción a su libertad, en la novela no hay (...) rebeliones de clones o crisis humanitaria sufrida por los clones. Pudiendo reflejar una utopía, provoca indignación y se categoriza como distopía en el supuesto de que los clones son también humanos o deberían contar como tales, pues así lo parecen. La parcialidad de la categorización distópica revela cierto prejuicio que impide ver que tal es la condición que el ganado enfrenta actualmente en nuestras sociedades. Su explotación no se categoriza como distópica ni injusta, a pesar de que comparte la misma forma de legitimidad en su explotación que los clones (‘para eso son’) y la misma limitación para articular por sí solos la resistencia de manera colectiva y sistemática. Conecto esta reflexión con el análisis de dos ámbitos en los que los animales no humanos son usados para fines no humanos: la experimentación biomédica y la ganadería. (shrink)

Este trabalho é parte de um estudo etnográfico em andamento no mestrado em Relações Étnicas e Contemporaneidade, período entre 2015-2017 com crianças da Comunidade Quilombola Barroso, município de Camamu-Bahia. Para construção dos dados foram realizadas pesquisas de campo, análises documentais, leituras de periódicos, livros e pesquisas online. Durante as observações pretendeu-se investigar como se dá o processo de construção identitária das crianças, tendo como objetivos específicos conhecer como os estudantes expressam sua identidade na escola e analisar de que forma as (...) relações estabelecidas na escola influenciam na construção identitária das crianças. Para além da escola, visitamos outros espaços por considerar importante e necessário conhecer como elas se relacionam, direcionando este primeiro olhar para o contexto sócio-histórico, político e cultural da comunidade. Palavras chave: Identidade. Quilombo. Símbolo. (shrink)

The political developments in post-socialist countries are taken as a general frame for discussing rural development in the transition from centrally planned to market economies. Rural communities and agriculture in post-socialist countries are facing major problems related to decollectivization of property, the stimulation of effective private agricultural units, and the building up of integrated rural communities and their local autonomy. After presenting the developments in Slovenia in detail, the author comes to the conclusion that no foreign/western development model can be (...) literally applied to any post-socialist state. These nations must define their own goals and formulate the strategies to reach them based on the analysis of their specific situations, and in doing this they must engage their own scientists/professionals and take foreign experts only as occasional advisors. (shrink)

After WWII, global concerns about the uses of nuclear energy and radiation sources in agriculture, medicine, and industry brought about calls for radiation protection. At the beginning of the 1960s radiation protection involved the identification and measurement of all sources of radiation to which a population was exposed, and the evaluation and assessment of populations in terms of the biological hazard their exposure posed. Mexico was not an exception to this international trend. This paper goes back to the origins of (...) the first studies on the effects of radiation and on radioprotective compounds in the Genetics and Radiobiology Program of the National Commission of Nuclear Energy founded in 1960, at a time when the effects of radiation on living beings and radiation protection demanded the attention of highly localized groups of scientists and the creation of international as well as national institutions, and its connection to dosimetry and radiation protection until the 1990s. This historical reconstruction examines the circulation of knowledge, scientists, and their material and cognitive resources, to show that radiobiology, with dosimetry and radiation protection as cases in point, not only were carried out with high international standards in parallel with international agencies, but also reflected local material needs, including the standardization of new experimental techniques. (shrink)

The history of science within the Ibero-American context has not received significant attention from historians of science. In the case of historical studies of science in Spain and Latin America, research has primarily been carried out under the umbrella of “centers and peripheries,” indicating that despite their historiographical and epistemological importance, narratives on science within certain national contexts have analytical limitations. Recent research has indicated a need to reconstruct transnational stories that account for how knowledge produced in developing countries forms (...) part of the circulation of international knowledge via international networks of collaboration. This perspective enables the... (shrink)

This article addresses the impact of the potential conflict between the roles of physicians who are both clinicians and researchers on the recruitment of persons into research trials. It has been proposedthat a physician breaches inter-role confidentiality when he or she uses information gathered in his or her clinical role to inform patients about trials for which they may be eligible and that clinician-researchers should adopt a model of preliminary consent to be approached about research prior to commencing a clinical (...) relationship. This article argues that even if we grant the legitimacy of inter-role confidentiality (which is open to question), there are circumstances in which other obligations physicians bear override the obligation of inter-role confidentiality. Moreover, it is argued that the practice of preliminary consent is morally suspect and that such consent cannot be deemed valid. The article concludes with a series of recommendations of ways in which the legitimate concern regarding the conflicting roles of clinician-researchers can be addressed in the recruitment stage of research. (shrink)