Emerging data connects the aging process in dermal fibroblasts with metabolic reprogramming, provided by enhanced fatty acid oxidation and reduced glycolysis. This switch may be caused by a significant expansion of the dermal white adipose tissue (dWAT) layer in aged, hair‐covered skin. Dermal adipocytes cycle through de‐differentiation and re‐differentiation. As a result, there is a strongly enhanced release of free fatty acids into the extracellular space during the de‐differentiation of dermal adipocytes in the catagen phase of the hair follicle cycle. (...) Both caveolin‐1 and adiponectin are critical factors influencing these processes. Controlling the expression levels of these two factors also offers the ability to manipulate the metabolic preferences of the different cell types within the microenvironment of the skin, including dermal fibroblasts. Differential expression of adiponectin and caveolin‐1 in the various cell types may also be responsible for the cellular metabolic heterogeneity within the cells of the skin. (shrink)

In the first section of this contribution, three conditions for scientific research into answers to fundamental, existential questions are discussed. However, because these conditions seem to violate concepts such as 'intersubjectivity' and 'truth', the second section deals with the question in which way a scientific approach that satisfies these three conditions can still be called scientific. The 'possibilistic scientific view' that results from this investigation, will in the third section be exemplified by qualitative research. It will be demonstrated that this (...) social scientific approach can meet the three aforementioned conditions. In the last section, one of the features of such a qualitative approach will be emphasized. 'Radical subjectivity' will be presented as a way to fully satisfy the third condition of research into questions of meaning. (shrink)

Although taste and smell seem hard to imagine, some people nevertheless report vivid imagery in these sensory modalities. We investigate whether experts are better able to imagine smells and tastes because they have learned the ability, or whether they are better imaginers in the first place, and so become experts. To test this, we first compared a group of wine experts to yoked novices using a battery of questionnaires. We show for the first time that experts report greater vividness of (...) wine imagery, with no difference in vividness across sensory modalities. In contrast, novices had more vivid color imagery than taste or odor imagery for wines. Experts and novices did not differ on other vividness of imagery measures, suggesting a domain‐specific effect of expertise. Critically, in a second study, we followed a group of students commencing a wine course and a group of matched control participants. Students and controls did not differ before the course, but after the wine course students reported more vivid wine imagery. We provide evidence that expertise improves imagery, exemplifying the extent of plasticity of cognition underlying the chemical senses. (shrink)

A postcolonialist reading of the deployment of the concept of culture in literature, anthropology, philosophy, sociology, cultural studies. It argues that modernity as understood in the Anglo-US episteme is structured around eurocentrism.

In _Knowing God_, Ismail Lala investigates the nature of God and whether we can truly know Him according to the influential mystic, Muḥyī al-Dīn ibn ʿArabī, and his disciple, ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Qāshānī.

This study is the first part of an attempt to settle a vigorous debate among historians of medieval philosophy by harnessing the resources of analytic philosophy. The debate is about whether Avicenna's epistemology is rationalist or empirical. To settle the debate, I first articulate in this article the three core theses of rationalism and one core thesis of empiricism. Then, I probe Avicenna's epistemology in his major works according to the first core thesis of rationalism (the intuition thesis). In the (...) end, I find Avicenna committed to this thesis in at least one substantive way, namely, in his claim to intuit the intelligible forms or essences. This suffices to count Avicenna as rationalist. In a subsequent article, I shall probe Avicenna's epistemology according to the other two core theses of rationalism, presenting further evidence that he was a rationalist, not an empiricist. (shrink)

Religion and violence are related in an ambivalent, paradoxical way, for the systems of religious knowledge tend to prohibit violence and to motivate it at the same time. This paper looks for the roots of that ambivalence and reveals particular mechanisms that generate violence within religious systems and their associated practices. It argues that violence in religious systems is present in at least three forms: It is inherent to communication with the “sacred,” it is generated by processes of inclusion and (...) exclusion, shaping religiously interpreted lifeworlds, and it is motivated or moderated by the respective semantics of religious narratives. The paper concludes that violence as a moment of hierophany is constitutive for the living experience in religious systems and cannot be eliminated entirely by moderating semantics. (shrink)

ABSTRACT The connection between the unity of God and the multiplicity seen in the universe represents the central concern for the Sufi thinker, Muḥyī al-Dīn ibn ‘Arabī (d. 638/1240). It deeply affected the thought of the Southeast Asian mystic, Ḥamza Fanṣūrī (d. 1590?), and his alleged disciple, Shams al-Dīn al-Sumatra’ī (d. 1630). Traces of this idea, through its popularisation in the poems of Fanṣūrī, exert a powerful influence on the Indonesian intellectual topography to this day. This article investigates the concept (...) of unity and multiplicity, of the One expressed as the many in the phenomenal world, in Ibn ‘Arabī’s Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam (Ringstones of Wisdom). Through a close textual reading of the chapters of Ādam (Adam) and Ibrāhīm (Abraham) and their various commentaries by the most influential followers of Ibn ‘Arabī, it concludes that the representation of ‘oneness of being’ (waḥdat al-wujūd), which was extensively taught by Fanṣūrī in Aceh, as an erasure of the God-Man divide, is untenable. (shrink)

Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn ‘Arabī (d. 638/1240) is regarded as one of the foremost mystical thinkers in Islam. This paper explores the ways in which he and his followers distinguish between the reality of Muḥammad (_al-ḥaqīqa al-Muḥammadiyya_) or the light of Muḥammad (_al-nūr al-Muḥammadī_), as the metaphysical reality of Muḥammad, and his metahistorical manifestation as Muḥammad Ibn ‘Abd Allāh. In his metaphysical reality, Muḥammad is the manifestation of the _qur’ān_, which ‘brings together’ the divine and His creation. Muḥammad’s metaphysical reality, as (...) the primary recipient of the divine outpouring, enables further differentiations of the divine to emerge in the form of the universe, and establishes his connection to the divine. Yet the Qur’an is also temporal in terms of being an historical act of revelation. Likewise, Muḥammad Ibn ‘Abd Allāh, in terms of his physical reality, was temporally circumscribed. It is in these ways, argues Ibn ‘Arabī and his acolytes, that Muḥammad, as reality and personality, brings together the divine and the temporal, in the same manner as the _qur’ān_/Qur’an respectively. (shrink)

Can a phenomenologically-founded sociology contribute to the understanding of social change? By reference to the structure of the lifeworld as it has been analyzed by Husserl and Schutz, I argue that human action is formed by temporal, spatial, and social dimensions. These are objectified by a social semantics through which they gain their intersubjective cultural shape. From this perspective, I investigate changes in the temporal, spatial, and social dimensions of this semantics, as they occur in the present transformation of post-socialist (...) societies. Finally, I consider whether these changes mark a return to Western patterns and whether they confirm the thesis of the end of history. (shrink)

Moses Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, ed. Rabbi Eliyahu Touger, 18 vols.

Razprava se ukvarja z analizo prvega pisma iz Hieronimove korespondence. Avtor je imel do njega očitno ambivalenten odnos, kar kliče k iskanju večplastne sporočilnosti spisa. Po poskusu datacije, retorični in slogovni analizi ter predstavitvi osnovne zgodbe, ki je vključena vanj, se pokaže, da je pismo kljub navidezni hagiografski šablonskosti vsebinsko bogato. Analiza se zato nadaljuje na dveh področjih. Kraj dogajanja, poznoantično mesto, ne more preživeti brez nove vodilne osebnosti, škofa. Je s pismom Hieronim želel tlakovati pot na vercelski škofovski sedež (...) prijatelju Evagriju iz Antiohije? Ob analizi nejasnih spolnih identitet obeh glavnih oseb iz zgodbe, nemoškega mladeniča in moško neuklonljive ženske, se pokaže, da je Hieronim v novem času iskal nov krščanski ideal, meništvo, ki ga je preko te zgodbe umestil v kontinuiteto z mučeništvom. (shrink)

Knjiga, ki ji je posvečena pričujoča recenzija, prinaša prevod dveh krajših Bonaventurovih del, O trojni poti (De triplici via) in Kako se različne umetnosti zvajajo na teologijo (De reductione artium ad theologiam). Prevedla ju je filozofinja in klasična filologinja Nena Bobovnik, ki na KU Leuven pripravlja doktorat iz srednjeveške filozofije. Poleg spremne besede z naslovom »Zaris srednjeveške in skicaBonaventurove filozofije« sta še dva uvoda v piščevo misel. Najprej tri kateheze, ki jih je papež Benedikt XVI. – ki se je na (...) Bonaventurovo teologijo zgodovine osredotočil v habilitacijski nalogi – spomladi leta 2010 posvetil svojemu »prijatelju«, kot se sam izrazi; nato pa še esej »Teološko-filozofska hermenevtika pri sv. Bonaventuru in njen pomen za današnji čas«, ki ga je pripravil Branko Klun s Teološke fakultete UL. (shrink)

This study explores the ways in which trust deficit undermines anti-corruption initiatives in a context with systemic corruption. Anti-corruption measures as panacea to systemic corruption are not new, but their effectiveness is debatable. Whilst understanding the causal relationship between corruption and trust remains germane to fighting corruption, a growing number of recent studies advocate better context sensitivity in developing anti-corruption initiatives. Consistent with this, we unpack the perceptions of a significant section of the population in which corruption is rampant to (...) identify factors that could enhance trust in the effectiveness of anti-corruption measures. Using commentaries from Nigerian Netizens on two critical corruption incidents that are significant to corporations, we uncover poignant narratives of perception of incompetence, dishonesty and confusion that undermine the anti-corruption measures in the context. We argue that donors, international organisations and businesses must encourage and support beneficiaries’ governments to secure and sustain trust in the anti-corruption initiatives as a condition for better results. (shrink)

Kadim bir dil olan Arapça, İslamiyet’in gelişiyle birlikte kutsal bir kitap olan Kur’an-ı Kerim’in dili olmuş, günümüze kadar varlığını ve önemini korumuştur. Anadili Arapça olmayanlara bu dilin öğretilmesi için farklı coğrafya ve farklı dönemlerde medreselerde veya devletin resmi eğitim kurumlarında Arapça dersleri verilmiştir. Verilen Arapça eğitimlerinde nahiv ve sarf temelli bir eğitim uygulanmıştır. Gramere dayalı bu dil eğitimi İlahiyat veya İslami İlimler fakültelerinde verilen eğitimlerle daha ileri bir seviyeye taşınmaya çalışılmıştır. İlahiyat veya İslami İlimler fakültelerinde verilen Arapça eğitimleri temelde dört (...) beceriyi kazandırma odaklı hazırlanmıştır. Ancak gramer odaklı verilmeye çalışılan Arapça eğitimlerinde hedeflenen başarı elde edilememektedir. Bu araştırmanın konusu, İlahiyat veya İslami İlimler fakültelerinde okutulan Arapça hazırlık eğitiminin değerlendirilmesi ve bu eğitimin kalitesinin arttırılması için yapılması gerekenlerdir. Bu doğrultuda bu çalışmada Bitlis Eren Üniversitesi İslami İlimler Fakültesi %30 Zorunlu Arapça Hazırlık Sınıflarının 2018-2019 Eğitim ve Öğretim Yılında aldıkları Arapça eğitimi model alınmıştır. Hazırlık Sınıflarında Arapça eğitimi alan 90 öğrenciye 33 sorudan oluşan anket uygulanmıştır. Anket sonuçları değerlendirilmiş ve verilen Arapça eğitiminin kalitesi ortaya konulmuştur. Elde edilen sonuçlardan hareketle, verilen eğitimde eksik ve hatalı durumlar tespit edilerek, eğitimin daha kaliteli bir düzeye ulaştırılması için önerilerde bulunulmuştur. Giriş bölümünde İlahiyat veya İslami İlimler fakültelerindeki Arapça eğitimi hakkında bilgiler verilmiştir. Sonrasında çalışmanın amacı, önemi, sınırlılıkları, problemi ve örneklem ortaya konulmuştur. Fakültede uygulanan Arapça hazırlık eğitimi hakkında bilgiler verilmiş ve uygulanan anket çalışmaya eklenmiştir. Son olarak bulgular ve yorumlar verilerek çalışma sonuç ve öneriler ile sonlandırılmıştır. (shrink)

The coronavirus has brought unprecedented shifts to our world. Fracturing social arrangements, yet evincing also long-time weaknesses therein, the pandemic beckons from us now new forms of organizi...

Mit der Entstehung der Collage wurde eine Kulturrevolution in Gang gesetzt, die sich heute in vielen einzelnen Verästelungen zeigt und die dazu geführt hat, dass man die Kunst mit anderen Augen sehen muss. Das Urheberrecht hat nach wie vor in vielen Teilen auf diese kulturelle Bewegung nicht reagiert. Dies erkennend, hat es sich die vorliegende Dissertation zum Ziel gesetzt, einzelne urheberrechtliche Problemschwerpunkte am konkreten Beispiel der Collage zu diskutieren. So werden u.a. Fragen nach einem zeitgenössischen Werkbegriff, nach dem richtigen Umgang (...) mit der erlaubnisfreien Nachschöpfung durch Dritte sowie der Urheberpersönlichkeitsrechte aufgegriffen. Dabei wird eine grundlegende Betrachtung vorgenommen, deren Grundsätze nicht alleine auf den Umgang mit der Collage beschränkt sind, sondern deren Aussagekraft von zukunftweisender Natur sind. Denn gerade mit Blick auf die zunehmende Technologisierung der Mittel, die es Jedermann erlaubt, unter Zuhilfenahme von vorgefundenem, urheberrechtlich geschützten Material tätig zu werden, wachsen die angesprochenen Probleme weiter und stellen das Urheberrecht, mehr noch als das heute der Fall ist, vor große Herausforderungen und Belastungen. (shrink)