Comparative Political Theory and Cross-Cultural Philosophy explores new forms of philosophizing in the age of globalization by challenging the conventional border between the East and the West, as well as the traditional boundaries among different academic disciplines. This rich investigation demonstrates the importance of cross-cultural thinking in our reading of philosophical texts and explores how cross-cultural thinking transforms our understanding of the traditional philosophical paradigm.

Background:The right of children to have their voice heard has been accepted by researchers, and there are increasing numbers of qualitative health studies involving children. The ethical and methodological issues of including children in research have caused worldwide concerns, and many researchers have published articles sharing their own experiences.Objectives:To systematically review and synthesise experts’ opinions and experiences about ethical and methodological issues of including children in research, as well as related solution strategies.Research design:The research design was a systematic review of (...) opinion-based evidence, based on the guidelines by Joanna Briggs Institute.Methods:A search of five computerised databases has been conducted in April 2014 and 2271 articles were found. After screening the titles, abstracts, full texts and appraising the quality, 30 articles were finally included in the review. A meta-aggregative approach was applied in the data analysis and synthesis process.Ethical considerations:Ethical approval is not needed as it is a systematic review of published literature.Results:Six themes were identified, including evaluating potential risks and benefits, gaining access, obtaining informed consent/assent, protecting confidentiality and privacy, building rapport and collecting rich data. The similarities and differences between research involving children and that involving adults were indicated.Conclusion:All potential incentives should be justified when designing the study. Further studies need to research how to evaluate individual capacity of children and how to balance protecting children’s right to participate and their interests in the research. Cultural differences related to researching children in different regions should also be studied. (shrink)

Using multi–sources: archeaology, history, geography, anthropology, wildlife, zoology, biology, oral tradition and archival material, the article examines the history of the elephant in Ghana, highlighting the various methods employed in hunting as well as the cultural and economic use values of the elephant in Ghana.

Using multi–sources: archeaology, history, geography, anthropology, wildlife, zoology, biology, oral tradition and archival material, the article examines the history of the elephant in Ghana, highlighting the various methods employed in hunting as well as the cultural and economic use values of the elephant in Ghana.

In the present paper two kinds of quantum-theoretical states are considered: the “physical state” determined by a complete observation and the “intrinsic state” which comprises the values of the observed as well as the unobserved observables. It will be shown that the future values of all these observables are determined. Causality is therefore valid, though not verifiable.

This work consists of a series of articles which are general and mainly historical in nature. They trace, in more or less detailed fashion, the main patterns of thought in the great world religions in this century, especially in relation to science and economic systems. This is more an historical and sociological study than a philosophical one, and its value is primarily a peripheral one for the student of religious thought and practice. Of particular interest, mainly due to its esoteric (...) attraction, is an article on he position of the Orthodox Church in Soviet Russia, which is a model of Marxist interpretation of religion and its influence on society. In summary, more an interesting general history than an intensive study.—K. O. (shrink)

This book is primarily concerned with the problem of human knowledge of the Divine. Its main emphasis is on the defense of the dualist views of the author, and in this defense he presents an extended criticism of the encounters of empiricist philosophy with religion. This is a good survey of the positivist and language-analysis theories of the possibility of knowing God, and while the approach is critical, the author does present a fairly extensive bibliography of his opponent's views. A (...) further item of interest is the author's unusual interpretation of the meaning of the traditional proofs of God's existence, in which he unites all these proofs by reducing them all to an intuition of the existence of God which is more an attitude than a demonstration. Finally, this book does suffer from the fact that it is supposed to be an introduction to the topic of philosophy religion, while it is in fact more an introduction to this subject from a special point of view. The result is unified but partisan, a perhaps unavoidable consequence in this subject.—K. O. (shrink)

The book provides a practical guide to the application of Critical Realism (CR), an increasingly popular philosophy of social science, in empirical research projects. Each purpose-written chapter reviews major social science research methods and contains extended illustration of how to conduct inquiry using CR.

German educators have long been concerned with the didactics of scientific education. Shortly after the Humboldtian reforms of the early nineteenth century, university science professors realized that they had to rely on teachers in the Gymnasien for well-prepared students. By mid-century, these teachers responded with treatises on the pedagogy of scientific education, treatises whose ideas, when implemented, guaranteed scientifically literate students who would later lead Germany to her first place position in the scientific world by 1900. Now, in the twentieth (...) century, two special conditions have changed the sense in which students could and should be scientifically literate. Logical positivism and its heirs inaugurated rigidly exact methodologies for questioning the foundation and content of science, while technological advances, specifically atomic and nuclear weaponry, raised anew the question of the role of science in modern culture, politics, and society. In recent years German citizens have had a special interest in the latter. (shrink)