Victorino Tejera combines an American naturalist approach to Aristotle's modes of knowing with new applications of Justus Buchler's systematic metaphysics. Bridging the gap between classical and modern, Tejera reveals a cohesive revitalization of metaphysical naturalism for contemporary scholars.

The issue of the article is whether the experience of Beauty or love in Plato can be considered as some kind of religious experience. First, the article describes different views on the religious experience. Then it deals with Plato's view on beauty and love and their relationship. finally, demonstrating the divinity of Beauty in Plato, the article shows that if religious experience is an encounter of the experiencer with the divine being, or in religious term God, that manifests itself in (...) various forms, and that encounter is accompanied by a direct conscious of the divine being, then the experience of Beauty or love in Plato can be considered as a kind of religious experience. The article merely claims that the experience of Beauty or love is an instance of religious experience, and it does not have any epistemological view on religious experience, however, any epistemological view on religious experience logically includes the experience of Beauty or love. -/- Key words: religious experience, beauty, love, divinity, Plato . (shrink)

Bilinç ile beyin arasındaki ilişki, düşünce tarihi boyunca tartışma konusu olmuştur. Son yüzyıla kadar zihin-beden ya da ruh-madde gibi kavramlarla anılan bu mesele, nörolojinin ivme kazanmasıyla birlikte beyin ve bilinç arasındaki ilişkiye indirgenmiştir. Bu bağlamda, insanın beyninde ortaya çıkan bilinçlilik durumunun, başka bir deyişle fenomenal deneyimlerin, nasıl meydana geldiği ve beyin ile bilincin birbirlerini nasıl etkiledikleri, hem bilimsel verilerle hem de bu verilerden hareketle ortaya konan felsefi yaklaşımlarla açıklanmaya çalışılmaktadır. Bu çalışmada, beyin ve bilinç arasındaki etkileşim sorununun nörolojinin verilerinden hareketle (...) nasıl ele alındığı incelenecektir. (shrink)

Due to the huge amount of data being generating from different sources, the analyzing and extracting of useful information from these data becomes a very complex task. The difficulty of dealing with big data optimization problems comes from many factors such as the high number of features, and the existing of lost data. The feature selection process becomes an important step in many data mining and machine learning algorithms to reduce the dimensionality of the optimization problems and increase the performance (...) of the classification or clustering algorithms. In this paper, a set of hybrid and efficient genetic algorithms are proposed to solve feature selection problem, when the handled data has a large feature size. The proposed algorithms use a new gene-weighted mechanism that can adaptively classify the features into strong relative features, weak or redundant features, and unstable features during the evolution of the algorithm. Based on this classification, the proposed algorithm gives the strong features high priority and the weak features less priority when generating new candidate solutions. In the same time, the proposed algorithm tries to more concentrate on unstable features that sometimes appear and sometimes disappear from the best solutions of the population. The performance of proposed algorithms is investigated by using different datasets and feature selection algorithms. The results show that our proposed algorithms can outperform the other feature selection algorithms and effectively enhance the classification performance over the tested datasets. (shrink)

Demodulating harmful nodes and diminishing the energy waste in sensor nodes can prolong the lifespan of wireless sensor networks. In this study, a genetic algorithm and an adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system were used to diminish the energy waste of sensors. Weighted trust evaluation was applied to search for harmful nodes in the network to prolong the lifespan of WSNs. A low-energy adaptive clustering hierarchy method was used to analyze the results. It was discovered that searching for harmful nodes with (...) GA-ANFIS using weighted trust evaluation significantly increased the lifespan of WSNs. For evaluation of the proposed method we used the mean of energy of all sensors against of the round, data packets received in base station, minimum energy versus rounds and number of alive sensors versus rounds. Also, in this paper we compared the proposed method results with LEACH, LEACH-DT, Random, SIF and GA-Fuzzy methods. As results the proposed method has high life time than other methods. A representation of the overall system was implemented using MATLAB software. (shrink)

Is there a connection between power struggles and urban context? How the urban space used for the symbolic manifestation of power and social control? How urban space becomes the site of conflict and resistance? How urban nodes like squares became political apparatus in social demonstrations and revolutions? How do specific squares become symbols of revolutions? This thesis investigated these questions by viewing the city as a place formed by politics, which built upon the central concept of Meydan (Public Square), as (...) the "political order in the ideogram of the city". Focusing on public squares, it traces their sociopolitical transformations as well as their role in instigating social transformations through examples that span from the pre-modern times to the present. As the embodiment of the square in the image of the city, the historical, social and theological concept of Meydan- a term, which has mostly applied, for Iranian public squares has been studied. The Empty Locus of Power rereads squares as peculiar urban forms and representations of political ideas, when the squares of the city has become the stage for the process of politicizing, de-politicizing or neutralizing space. This thesis tries to analyze the square beyond an architectural element in the city, but weaves this blank slate, with its contemporary socio political atmosphere as a new paradigm. This interpretation, suggested the idea of Meydan as the core of the projects on the city, which historically exposed in formalization of theological ideologies. Regarding this issue, urban space of traditional Iranian cities introduced as the medium through which theological ideologies and political sovereignty took place. In pursuing such analyses, this research engages with issues ranging from details of political histories of the case studies in public squares to the master plan of the city of VIII Tehran. During the recent century, various political events and social demonstrations have been staged in Tehran as Middle Eastern Capital, which emphasize the further discussions for analyzing the relationship between socio-political dimensions of city and its urban projects that ultimately led to occupy the city and reclaim the public spaces in Iranian Islamic Revolution of 1979. In this sense, analyzing the major political events in modern Tehran as a city loaded with politics will lead to trace the processes of its spatial transformation. In this regard, the thesis examines the relationship between affordances of public spaces, their histories, and the emergence of social events and movements. Building on this theoretical framework, this thesis stresses on the transformative dynamism of autocratic modernization, which motivate or shape a creative tension in the form of the city. The emergence of representative pseudo political public space for demonstration of power and national identity during the First Pahlavi Era (1925-41), reoccupation of public spaces by social movements and political parties during the nationalization of Iranian oil movement till 1953 Iranian coup d'etat will be the second part and socio- political arrangement of capital as ‘Metropolis of Tomorrow' and its urban transformation during the second Pahlavi Era (1941-79) till Islamic Revolution have been examined. Analysis suggests that spatial transformations and modernization politics have led to or facilitated (directly or indirectly and, or inadvertently) political changes. Building on the foundation of knowledge established in this research, the final part of research focuses on the centrality of squares in recent social protests. Using Middle East sociologist, Asef Bayat's theory of ‘Spatialities of discontent', the final chapter explores the spatial dimension of political spaces of the city and aims to theorize the necessity of urban social movements to approach democratic space in a global context. (shrink)

Everyday resistance is about the many ways people undermine power and domination through their routine and everyday actions. Unlike open rebellions or demonstrations, it is typically hidden, not politically articulated, and often ingenious. But because of its disguised nature, it is often poorly understood as a form of politics and its potential underestimated. Conceptualizing Everyday Resistance presents an analytical framework and theoretical tools to understand the entanglements of everyday power and resistance. These are applied to diverse empirical cases including queer (...) relationships in the context of heteronormativity, Palestinian daily life under military occupation, workplace behaviors under office surveillance, and the tactics of fat acceptance bloggers facing the War against obesity. Johansson and Vinthagen argue that everyday resistance is best understood by accounting for different repertoires of tactics, relations between actors, and struggles around constructions of time and space. Through a critical dialogue with the work of James C. Scott, Michel de Certeau, and Asef Bayat, they aim to reconstruct the field of resistance studies, expanding what counts as resistance and building systematic analysis. Conceptualizing Everyday Resistance offers researchers and students from different theoretical and empirical backgrounds, an essential overview of the field and a creative framework that illuminates the potential of all people to transform society. (shrink)

The ‘rise’ and ‘decline’ refer to the rationale behind Islamic attractiveness and its rejection. What I intend to write is a narrative based on theoretical intuitions and empirical facts very different from Olivier Roy’s thesis on the ‘failure’ of political Islam (1992) and Asef Bayat’s post-Islamism (1996). My theoretical intuition is that political Islam has for years at best taken advantage of a long-term series of failures. First, there is the failure of modernization, of secularity and of national ideology. (...) Islamist movements transformed this kind of ‘negative legitimacy’ into an electoral success. This is the case with En-Nahdha in Tunisia. Second, however, this electoral legitimacy was rapidly eroded. Third, post-Islamist expectations were not met: political Islam with its radicalism was not cut off and did not digest jihadism and terrorism. It is still worked out by a double-handed attempt: a neo-authoritarian politics and a religious anti-liberal zeal. Now, this project is failing, not because political Islam entered into a ‘post-Islamist’ area but thanks to a strong and heroic resistance of secular civil society. (shrink)