Study of the philosophy of ethics introdued by noted ancient philosophers, reformers and moralists.

Software defects prediction at the initial period of the software development life cycle remains a critical and important assignment. Defect prediction and correctness leads to the assurance of the quality of software systems and has remained integral to study in the previous years. The quick forecast of imperfect or defective modules in software development can serve the development squad to use the existing assets competently and effectively to provide remarkable software products in a given short timeline. Hitherto, several researchers have (...) industrialized defect prediction models by utilizing statistical and machine learning techniques that are operative and effective approaches to pinpoint the defective modules. Tree family machine learning techniques are well-thought-out to be one of the finest and ordinarily used supervised learning methods. In this study, different tree family machine learning techniques are employed for software defect prediction using ten benchmark datasets. These techniques include Credal Decision Tree, Cost-Sensitive Decision Forest, Decision Stump, Forest by Penalizing Attributes, Hoeffding Tree, Decision Tree, Logistic Model Tree, Random Forest, Random Tree, and REP-Tree. Performance of each technique is evaluated using different measures, i.e., mean absolute error, relative absolute error, root mean squared error, root relative squared error, specificity, precision, recall, F-measure, G-measure, Matthew’s correlation coefficient, and accuracy. The overall outcomes of this paper suggested RF technique by producing best results in terms of reducing error rates as well as increasing accuracy on five datasets, i.e., AR3, PC1, PC2, PC3, and PC4. The average accuracy achieved by RF is 90.2238%. The comprehensive outcomes of this study can be used as a reference point for other researchers. Any assertion concerning the enhancement in prediction through any new model, technique, or framework can be benchmarked and verified. (shrink)

The use of slang, abusive, and offensive language has become common practice on social media. Even though social media companies have censorship polices for slang, abusive, vulgar, and offensive language, due to limited resources and research in the automatic detection of abusive language mechanisms other than English, this condemnable act is still practiced. This study proposes USAD, a lexicon-based intelligent framework to detect abusive and slang words in Perso-Arabic-scripted Urdu Tweets. Furthermore, due to the nonavailability of the standard dataset, we (...) also design and annotate a dataset of abusive, offensive, and slang word Perso-Arabic-scripted Urdu as our second significant contribution for future research. The results show that our proposed USAD model can identify 72.6% correctly as abusive or nonabusive Tweet. Additionally, we have also identified some key factors that can help the researchers improve their abusive language detection models. (shrink)

This paper aims to examine the direct and indirect impact of ambient air pollution on employees’ performance. This study has used cross sectional survey design to collect the data from the outdoor employees of the pharmaceutical industry of Pakistan. The data were collected in time lags from 299. Partial least squares- structural equation modeling approach was applied to analyze the data. The results show that AAP has a significant negative impact on the employees’ performance, and anxiety partially mediates the association (...) between AAP and employees’ performance. This study reveals that AAP brings anxiety among outdoor employees, which in turn decreases their working performance. The implications, limitations, and future research directions are presented in the last section of this study. (shrink)

Context. Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter carry a big load of people’s opinions about politics and leaders, which makes them a good source of information for researchers to exploit different tasks that include election predictions. Objective. Identify, categorize, and present a comprehensive overview of the approaches, techniques, and tools used in election predictions on Twitter. Method. Conducted a systematic mapping study on election predictions on Twitter and provided empirical evidence for the work published between January 2010 and (...) January 2021. Results. This research identified 787 studies related to election predictions on Twitter. 98 primary studies were selected after defining and implementing several inclusion/exclusion criteria. The results show that most of the studies implemented sentiment analysis followed by volume-based and social network analysis approaches. The majority of the studies employed supervised learning techniques, subsequently, lexicon-based approach SA, volume-based, and unsupervised learning. Besides this, 18 types of dictionaries were identified. Elections of 28 countries were analyzed, mainly USA and Indian elections. Furthermore, the results revealed that 50% of the primary studies used English tweets. The demographic data showed that academic organizations and conference venues are the most active. Conclusion. The evolution of the work published in the past 11 years shows that most of the studies employed SA. The implementation of SNA techniques is lower as compared to SA. Appropriate political labelled datasets are not available, especially in languages other than English. Deep learning needs to be employed in this domain to get better predictions. (shrink)

SECTION ONE THE STATE OF OURWORLD It may easily be said that our so called modern twentieth century was one of the most barbaric and wasteful centuries of human history. Here are the statistics: World War I (9.7 million military and 9 ...

ملخّـــــــــــــــص. بشارات، أحمد محمد. الالتفات في السّرد القرآني. رسالة دكتوراه في جامعة اليرموك. 2015م. (المشرف: أ.د. يوسف أبو العدوس). يعرض البحث ثلاث قضايا: الأولى، بنية الالتفات النصّي في محاولة لإجراء مفهوم يصدق على التشكّل البنيوي للالتفات النصّي، بإقامة تقابلات وظيفية بين الالتفات ووظيفتين في الدراسات السّرديّة: وظيفة الحافز ووظيفة التحفيز. إنّ الالتفات النصّي يتشكّل وفقًا للاعتبار الدلاليّ؛ فالتصوّر الشّكلي(=البنيّة التركيبية) غير وارد في إقامة مفهوم وظيفيّ للالتفات النصّي؛ أي أنّ بنيّة الالتفات بنيّة فوق صرفيّة(=صيغة الكلمة)، وفوق نحوية(=مسند ومسند إليه=جملة)، فالالتفات (...) النصّي مختلف عن الالتفات في الدّرس البلاغيّ القديم(=التفات الضمائر والأفعال...)؛ فقد يكون الالتفات النصّي مسندًا، أو إسنادًا، أو عدة جمل متتابعة(=آية أو عدة آيات في هذا البحث). والقضية الثانية، إجراء تحليل بنيويّ للالتفات النصّي في الخطاب القرآني، فالالتفات النصّي بناء لسانيّ مثير للاهتمام من جهتي الشكل والمعنى، إذ يتعالق الالتفات بمستويات واسعة من البناء النصّي في الخطاب القرآني، يدعو هذا إلى تحليل بنيّة التعالق اللسانيّ بإقامة الروابط البنيويّة في مستوى واسع من الخطاب القرآني، وهو ما قدّمه البحث في وظيفتيّ الإحالة والتكرار. والقضية الثالثة، محاولة إجراء مقاربات في المعنى، إذ يتعالق نصّ الالتفات بمستويات دلاليّة منفتحة، فمثلاً يتعالق الالتفات "وَلَنْ تَفْعَلُوا" (24\البقرة) في فكرة الإعجاز في آيات التحدي في مستوى واسع من المعنى، إذ يقدّم التحدي وظيفة مركزية في القضاء على اعتقاد الآلهة، وإقامة الاعتقاد لله وحده؛ لقد وُضِع المشكّكون في حرج، إذ يتوجب على آلهتهم أن تقدّم لهم خطابًا إلهيًا. وفي جانب آخر لم يجر التحدي في منحىً وظيفيّ واحد، فالتحدي بسورة غير التحدي بعشر سور، والتحدي بسورة وبعشرٍ غيره في مثلية القرآن {فَلْيَأْتُوا بِحَدِيثٍ مِثْلِهِ} (34\الطور)؛ إنّ هذه التحولات الوظيفية في سرديّة التحدي تقدّم ثلاثة أمور مهمة-وفق هذا البحث على الأقلّ- أ-وظيفة توحيد الله، ب-وظيفة حفظ الخطاب الإلهي مقابلاً للتحريف والافتراء، ج-الوظيفة التواصلية(= الوحي من طريق جبريل) مقابلاً لقولهم إنّ الرسول كاهن أو شاعر أو مجنون، فالمشككون يعتقدون تواصليةً في الكهنة والسحر مع عالم الجنّ، فأسقطوا ذلك على الخطاب الإلهي. -/- . (shrink)

الملخص قاعدة "الأصل" و "استصحاب الحال" قراءة في منهج النحاة من الاستعمال إلى التعليل إلى القاعدة ملخص تعدّ فكرة "الأصل" (=علة الأصل) منهجـًا اتّبعه النّحاة لتقديم تفسيرات منطقية في بعض مسائل الكلم في العربية، إذ أخذ النحاة إجراء منهج تحليليّ يعتمد افتراض أو استحضار مكوّن بنيوي على أنّه "أصل الاستعمال" غاية إيجاد مقاربات منطقية تربط الاستعمال المنجز بالقاعدة، فـ"الأصل"–وفق النحاة- إمّا "نمطٌ لغويٌّ مهجورٌ غير أنّه اُستعمل في طور من أطوار العربية"، أو "نمط لغوي افتراضي" يجريه النحاة على معيارية الاستعمال (...) بحيث يصحّ عدّه منجزًا لغويًا تقابليًّا لاستعمالات تجري والقاعدة؛ وقد أجرى سيبيويه منهج قياسٍ افتراضي وَفْقَ عبارته:"وهذا تمثيلٌ ولم يُتكلّم به" ليجعل "المكوّن" الافتراضي شاهدًا نحويًّا يمثّل "أصل الاستعمال" ويصحّ الرجوع إليه في اشتقاق القاعدة والوصول إلى التعليل. يدرس البحث علاقة الوظيفة التعليلية بين "الأصل" و"استصحاب الحال" أجْل الوقوف على منهج النحاة في إطلاق الأحكام القواعدية في المسائل التي اعتمدوا فيها فكرة التعليل بـ"الأصل"، وهل كانت أحكامهم في تلك المسائل مقنعة أو غير مقنعة؟ ويسعى البحث إلى بيان العلاقة بين فكرة "الأصل" و"أدلة النحو" (الأصول) من وجهة تسعى إلى بيان منطق التعليل بـ"علة الأصل". The original rule of the historical usage of the primary sentence and the semi-original rules of the grammatical thinking A reading in the grammarian's approach, from usage to the reasoning to the rules Abstract The original rule of the historical usage of the primary sentence is considered one of the methods that followed by the grammarians to provide a logical explanation sequence for some of the language issues. Most of the grammarians assume that there is a new sentence style that referred to an old usage in some of the sentence’s structure. According to the grammarians that these old structures are being the reference rules and evidences to explain the structure of the new structure style. Also based on the grammarian approach the old structure is divided into two parts: the first, sentence structure that have been actually used in the language history. The second is an imagination assumption where such kind of structures have not been used before and therefore can be considered as a hypothetical lingual style only, Sebaweeh has conducted a standard approach according to his phrase "This is a an example only, it has not been spoken". It is important to know that the grammarians have followed an analytical approach to make a center point between the original rule and the semi-original rule so as to provide a logical explanation of these structure styles. This research seeks to study the relation between the original rule and semi-original rules of the grammatical thinking. In addition, this search seeks to study the relation between the original rule and the Grammatical evidence (=OSOL) Key Words: The original rule - the semi-original rules -/- الكلمات المفتاحية أصول النحو، قاعدة الأصل، استصحاب الحال. (shrink)

Applying the dormitory system for thousands of santri (student of Islamic boarding school in Indonesia), Quranic pesantren (Islamic boarding school) has been considered as one of the main culprits in the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Such assumption is created solely from the applicable health protocols and protective measures to avoid COVID-19 transmission in pesantren. As a matter of fact, pesantrens are known to have applied a distinctive way of coping with COVID-19. This study aims to elucidate the (...) theology of health of Quranic pesantren in the face of COVID-19. Research data were generated through observational method on three Quranic pesantrens in Yogyakarta, interviews with caregivers, the COVID-19 task force of the pesantren, santri and documentation related to the handling of COVID-19 in the three pesantrens. The results showed that the Quranic pesantren as a subculture has a distinctive way of dealing with COVID-19 pandemic by integrating modified health protocols in accordance with the actual conditions of the pesantren and by applying rituals of Islamic spirituality by reciting verses of the Qur’an, salawat (prayers for the Prophet), prayers and hizib (prayer for salvation and rejecting calamities). Three pesantrens chose these methods by drawing on the belief that COVID-19 is God’s creature and, thus, it only works on God’s orders and will stop if God wills. In line with this, this study suggests a method for handling COVID-19 by not only emphasising the health protocols and medical procedures but also taking into account the importance of local wisdom. Contribution statement: This article contributes to the strategy of COVID-19 handling by combining the health protocols of COVID-19 and the applicable local wisdom, such as religious ritual as practiced by numerous pesantren in Indonesia. (shrink)

ملخـــص -/- بشارات، أحمد محمد. التفسير الدلالي في إعراب المضارع-الجزم أنموذجًا. رسالة ماجستير في جامعة اليرموك. 2007م. (المشرف: أ.د. فيصل صفا). هدف البحث إلى إعطاء تفسيرات دلالية لظهور إعراب الجزم في تركيبات الجملة الفعلية، وحاول تعليل ارتباط الجزم بفكرة التعليق الشرطي، وتعليل عدم الجزم في بعض التركيبات الشرطية، وحاول أن يقدم تفسيرًا دلاليًا لاختلاف آخر المضارع، وتعليلاً لاختلاف آخر المضارع المنفي (لا/ لن/ لم/ يفعل) مختلف الصورة الإعرابية بالرفع مرة والنصب أخرى والجزم ثالثة. وسعى البحث في ظاهرة الجزم إلى الكشف (...) عن حالة الإعراب في المضارع أهي بالمشابهة للأسماء أم بالأصالة، والكشف عن فكرة الإعراب في المضارع أيقدم إعراب المضارع معنىً نحويًا أم أنه حالة من الإعراب تخرج عن فكرة النحاة القائلة بأن الإعراب فرع المعنى. وقد جاء البحث في مقدمة وتمهيد وبابين وخاتمة، عرضت في المقدمة أهمية البحث في ظاهرة الجزم، وذكرت الدراسات السابقة لهذا البحث، مبينًا أهم نتائجها، ووضحت في المقدمة خطة البحث ومنهجيته. أما الباب الأول فقد جاء في فصلين: الأول عنوانه" الجزم في الدرس النحوي القديم" عرضت فيه لمصطلح الجزم لغةً واصطلاحًا غاية ربط مفهوم المصطلح بفكرة الدلالة في الإنجاز اللغوي، وبحثت في مصطلحات الإعراب الأخرى لغةً واصطلاحًا، وعرضت لفكرة إعراب المضارع علةً ودلالةً، والفصل الثاني وعنوانه" علة إعراب المضارع ودلالته في الدرس النحوي الحديث" بحثت فيه علة تشكل علامة الإعراب أهي بالمعنى أو بالعامل؟ وعرضت فيه لفكرة المحدثين في بحثهم معنى الإعراب في المضارع. أما الباب الثاني، فقد جاء في فصلين: الأول عنوانه" التفسير الدلالي لظاهرة الجزم، وعرضت فيه علة اختلاف آخر المضارع محاولاً ربط الشكل الإعرابي بالدلالة النحوية، وعرضت فيه لمعاني الفعل(الإسناد والزمن والحدث) محاولا ربط علامة آخر المضارع بدلالة الإسناد فيه. والفصل الثاني عنوانه" معنى الجزم في السياقات اللغوية، عرضت فيه لمعنى الجزم في التركيبات اللغوية، وعرضت فيه لفكرة الجزم في صيغ الأمر معللاً حالة الاخر في صيغ الأمر على نحو يربطها بمسألة الإعراب. وقد خضعت الدراسة لمنهج تحليليّ. وخرج البحث ببعض النتائج، نذكر منها: - إن إطلاق المصطلحات الإعرابية يرجع إلى ملحظ صوتيّ حسب، فلا يتوافق معنى المصطلح الإعرابي مع واقع الإنجاز اللغوي. - المضارع معرب بالأصالة لا بالمشابهة؛ ذلك أن المضارع المنصوب والمجزوم لا يقع موقع الأسماء، والموقعية علة في إعراب الفعل. - معاني النحو هي المعاني الوظيفية للسياق، وقول النحاة إنّ المعاني النحوية هي الفاعلية والمفعولية والإضافة قول غير دقيق؛ لأن النعت والحال والوصف والإسناد وغيرها معانٍ نحوية تعتور على السياق. - يرتبط إعراب المضارع بفكرة الإسناد في الفعل، فالرفع للإسناد الواقع، والنصب للإسناد الغائي، والجزم يدل على عدم وقوع الإسناد. -/- الكلمات المفتاحية: الجزم، دلالة الجزم، إعراب الجزم، إعراب المضارع، الإسناد، التعليق الشرطي، الجزم والتعليق الشرطي، الأدوات الجازمة. دلالة الإعراب في المضارع. (shrink)

The weaponizing of scientific expertise to oppose regulation has been extensively studied. However, the relevant studies, belonging to the emerging discipline of agnotology, remain focused on the analysis of empirical corruption: of misinformation, doubt mongering, and other practices that cynically deploy expertise to render audiences ignorant of empirical facts. This paper explores the wrongful deployment of expertise beyond empirical corruption. To do so, I develop a broader framework of morally subversive expertise, building on recent work in political philosophy (Howard, 2016). (...) Expertise is subversive if it sets up its audience to fail morally, either intentionally or negligently. I distinguish three modes of subversive expertise: empirical subversion (the focus of agnotology), normative subversion and motivational subversion. Drawing on these distinctions, I offer a revisionary account of the Trump Administration’s regulatory science as a case study. I show that the Trump Administration’s use of expertise to dismantle climate regulation, contra the standard charge, cannot be explained using the resources of agnotology alone: the Administration produced highly reliable climate assessments, detailing the risks of climate change, candidly admitting the harms of its proposed policies, and still successfully deployed these findings to justify massive climate deregulation. The lesson of the analysis is that dismissing the expertise that underpins climate deregulation as empirically corrupt ‘anti-science’ both obscures its actual role in the politics of climate change and understates its wrongfulness: it misses the breadth of the assault on moral agency that sustains climate injustice. (shrink)

This book provides a careful and comprehensive, step-by-step method for providing clinical ethics consultation. This Guide can be applied in almost any healthcare setting and takes the reader from establishing an intake process and developing strategies for interviewing those involved in the situation, to undertaking a consultation meeting and following up on a clinical consult. The book is an invaluable resource to any clinical ethicist, or committee or consult team member who is seeking to provide their service with rigour and (...) quality. Written in simple language, the book explores ideas and concepts that will help the reader to understand, think through, and ultimately offer useful ethical consultation when facing ethically challenging issues. (shrink)

This workbook is a companion to Clinical Ethics Consultation: A Practical Guide to Changing Culture, Building Capacity and Solving Problems Case by Case. The Toolkit lays out the process for clinical ethics consultation in a series of steps within five phases: Pre-Consult, Interviews, Mid-Consult, Consult meeting(s), and Post-Consult. For each step, the Toolkit provides directions for how to complete it, tips for success, and worksheets for capturing data and analysis. The Clinical Ethics Consultation Toolkit is the playbook from which clinical (...) ethics consultants can draw methods and strategies for effectively delivering ethics consultation. (shrink)

Drawing on both theoretical debates and case studies from around the world, this book explores how the politics of reconciliation relates to various models of democratic citizenship.

The paper describes the design of an intelligent tutoring system for teaching Introduction to Computer Science-a compulsory curriculum in Al-Azhar University of Gaza to students who attend the university. The basic idea of this system is a systematic introduction into computer science. The system presents topics with examples. The system is dynamically checks student's individual progress. An initial evaluation study was done to investigate the effect of using the intelligent tutoring system on the performance of students enrolled in computer science (...) curriculum at Al-Azhar University, Gaza. The results showed a positive impact on the evaluators. (shrink)

This study has proposed to apply change leadership as a vehicle forward for sustaining the growth of the tourism industry to eradicate poverty through the Pakistani tourism industry. Applying a mixed method approach, this article has attempted to uncover the role a change leader can play to help achieve the United Nations’ sustainable development goals of poverty reduction. In this study, one of the authors interviewed stakeholders of the tourism industry to find out the major drivers of the industry and (...) identify the leadership style that may prove to be effective in the said industry. In the next phase of the study, a survey method approach was used where different tourism companies and hotel chains were included for analysis. The study aimed to check employee’s perception of change leadership and its impact on their resilience and ultimately the sustainable organization performance of companies’ operationalizing in the sector with moderating impact of sustainable tourism attitude in times of a crisis. In total, 430 full-time workers in the tourism industry were contacted for a self-administered survey achieving a response rate of 83%. The findings of the study confirmed that in the presence of a change leader, the process of adaptation to sudden changing situations amidst financial crises, pandemic, and climatic change, becomes bearable and employees can cope with the work situations without pushing them to quit the industry. The study has a significant contribution toward a rapidly growing and focused industry, which can play a major role in the economy of any country leading toward job creation and poverty reduction. (shrink)

The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the ideological, social, economic, and political aspects of life on planet Earth. This study examines the visuals associated with COVID-19 published in Pakistani English newspapers. Visual data were collected through purposive sampling, analyzed using social semiotic theory, and discussed through a post-colonial lens. The visual data were grouped as Global South and North owing to socioeconomic and political categorization among countries. The results show that the Pakistani media portrayed the Global South as rebellious, miserable, and (...) noisy against the government. However, the Global North is depicted as civilized, stress-free, and abiding by all the instructions of the authority. Analysis shows that the two realms are visually represented as remarkably divergent from each other, and media portrayal has attached stereotypes identities to the nations. Pakistani media follows a basic restricted code of conduct, which should be extended to avoid labelling and politicizing groups and nations. (shrink)

The internationalization of professional practices and the export of western technology and higher education are accompanied by a need to establish international standards of ethics across different professions. This pioneering and provocative group of essays constitutes essential reading for those interested in understanding, formulating, and teaching ethical standards for professions in an international and particularly cross-cultural context.

Analyzing encounters between Europeans and their eastern others before the European Enlightenment, this book illustrates that adopting an intercultural perspective in western political theory is necessary because the West’s cultural others have played a foundational role in developing a distinct western cultural self-understanding.

Analyzing encounters between Europeans and their eastern others before the European Enlightenment, this book illustrates that adopting an intercultural perspective in western political theory is necessary because the West’s cultural others have played a foundational role in developing a distinct western cultural self-understanding.

The aim of present paper is to introduce the concept of ‘expressive perception’ in Ernst Cassirer’s philosophical mythology. Having Cited Dorothy Emmet’s methodological objection, the author, by recalling Kantian aspect of Cassirer’s thought and referring to the concept of ‘expressive perception’, would make an attempt to reply on his part: according to Cassirer, this level of perceptive experience is the origin of the mythical form of thinking as a whole and, at the same time, is the original and irreducible altogether. (...) Thus, taking ‘mythical thought’ as an independent form of thinking, beside the ‘critical-empirical’ form of thinking, is, for one thing, completely cogent; for another, due to its dependency upon expressive form of perception, mythical thought would never be quite omitted, rather, keep living latently beneath the skin of mental life. In addition, author explains how much Cassirer owes, regarding to the concept of ‘expressive form of perception’, to Max Scheler. Avoiding to elaborate on Scheler’s detailed argument, Cassirer relies strongly on the consequences Scheler draws from his considerations in his work ‘Wesen und Formen der Sympathie’. Restating Scheler’s argument briefly should help in understanding Cassirer’s idea. (shrink)

This article extends Georg Lukács’s theorization pertaining to historical fiction by considering a novel written in response to colonial conditions. It treats Abdulhalim Sharar’s Urdu Malik al-‘Aziz and Virginia (1888) as a case where a fictional version of the encounter between Muslims and Christians during the crusades in the twelfth century is used to counter the colonial Indian present in the nineteenth century. I suggest that novels such as Sharar’s exemplify a vein of global thought since the nineteenth century that (...) resisted historicism but without abandoning the notion that the past was real. Deploying a genre that came to the fore in colonial conditions, Sharar imagines an alternative future by narrating the past otherwise via fiction. (shrink)

This volume identifies, discusses and addresses the wide array of ethical issues that have emerged for engineers due to the rise of a global economy. To date, there has been no systematic treatment of the particular challenges globalization poses for engineering ethics standards and education. This volume concentrates on precisely this challenge. Scholars and practitioners from diverse national and professional backgrounds discuss the ethical issues emerging from the inherent symbiotic relationship between the engineering profession and globalization. Through their discussions a (...) deeper and more complete understanding of the precise ways in which globalization impacts the formulation and justification of ethical standards in engineering as well as the curriculum and pedagogy of engineering ethics education emerges. (shrink)

The setting of evidential standards is a core practice of scientific assessment for policy. Persuaded by considerations of inductive risk, philosophers generally agree that the justification of evidential standards must appeal to non-epistemic values but debate whether the balance of non-epistemic reasons favours varying evidential standards versus maintaining fixed high evidential standards in assessment, as both sets of standards promote different and important political virtues of advisory institutions. In this paper, I adjudicate the evidential standards debate by developing a novel (...) argument from justice, drawing on the IPCC’s assessment of climate impacts as a case study. I argue that in assessments marked by background evidential inequality, maintaining fixed high evidential standards results in an unequal distribution of ‘epistemic power’ among stakeholders, producing a ‘powerful assessment’ for the data-rich (a high rate of findings) and a ‘weak assessment’ for the data-poor (a low rate of findings). Where such inequalities of epistemic power disadvantage those in data-poor regions with respect to fundamental interests, such as basic human rights, we have decisive reasons of justice to vary evidential standards. (shrink)

Health care providers’ interpretation of law can have intended and unintended effects on health care delivery in Canada. At times, health care providers encounter situations where they perceive the law to conflict with their sense of what is most ethically justified. In many cases, these health care providers feel especially torn because they assume that the legal requirements must dictate the decision, and cannot be explored or questioned. We challenge this assumption: the law is not as cut-and-dried as some assume; (...) therefore, its significance to health care decisions should be carefully considered. Within a systematic ethics process, legal considerations can be a source of values and information and can create opportunities for further dialogue. This approach is justified because it appropriately reflects the relationship of the law to ethics. This way of thinking about the law and ethics also avoids potentially harmful consequences of legalistic approaches to decision-making, such as breakdowns in communication, adversarial relationships, and a reduction of ethically complex decisions to simple rule following. (shrink)

This is an analytical examination of Ibn Khaldun's epistemology, centred on Chapter Six of the Muqaddima. In this chapter, entitled The Book of Knowledge (Kitab al'Ilm), Ibn Khaldun sketched his general ideas about knowledge and science and its relationship with human social organisation and the establishment of a civilisation.

In this paper, we present a non-geometrodynamic quantum Yang–Mills theory of gravity based on the homogeneous Lorentz group within the general framework of the Poincare gauge theories. The obstacles of this treatment are that first, on the one hand, the gauge group that is available for this purpose is non-compact. On the other hand, Yang–Mills theories with non-compact groups are rarely healthy, and only a few instances exist in the literature. Second, it is not clear how the direct observations of (...) space–time waves can be explained when space–time has no dynamics. We show that the theory is unitary and is renormalizable to the one-loop perturbation. Although in our proposal, gravity is not associated with any elementary particle analogous to the graviton, classical helicity-two space–time waves are explained. Five essential exact solutions to the field equations of our proposal are presented as well. We also discuss a few experimental tests that can falsify the presented Yang–Mills theory. (shrink)