The principles offered by beliefs affect the thinking styles of individuals. Although it has been argued in recent studies that believers and non-believers have different thinking styles, there are few studies examining the relationship between belief and cognitive styles in Muslim groups. In this study, the relationships between intrinsic religious motivation and "critical thinking", which is one of the most desired thinking skills today, and " dichotomous thinking", which can be expressed as black-and-white thinking and primarily associated with negative structures, (...) were examined. The study was carried out with 395 university students, and the data was obtained by a socio-demographic information form, the Intrinsic Religious Motivation Scale, the Critical Thinking Disposition Scale, and the Dichotomous Thinking Scale. Findings suggested a positive significant relationship between intrinsic religious motivation and critical thinking and dichotomous thinking, and a positive significant relationship between critical thinking and dichotomous thinking. Regarding the relationship between dichotomous thinking and critical thinking, intrinsic religious motivation had a mediating role. The Islamic faith often invites reasoning and thinking and affirms this way of thinking; at the same time, it offers various conceptual tools for dichotomous thinking with discourses such as heaven-hell, good-evil, dark-light, and faith-denial. Although critical thinking and dichotomous thinking are seen as opposite constructs, the findings have been interpreted as the Islamic belief supporting both critical thinking and dichotomous thinking at the same time, thus reducing the rigidity of dichotomous thinking. The findings were discussed in the light of the relevant literature, and suggestions were made for further research. (shrink)

Thinking is one of the essential elements of human life. Critical thinking, on the other hand, enables one to think correctly and consistently by protecting his mind from mistakes. However, this way of thinking is not an innate feature of the human being but developed through education. The person who learns to think appropriately will follow a more successful path both in his personal life, in his relations to his environment and in professional life. Although this work is an introduction (...) to critical thinking, it is an important first step for those who are just starting to read in the field. (shrink)

In this paper, we propose some transfor mations based on the centroid points between single valued neutrosophic numbers. We introduce these trans formations according to truth, indeterminacy and falsity value of single valued neutrosophic numbers. We propose a new similarity measure based on falsity value between single valued neutrosophic sets. Then we prove some properties on new similarity measure based on falsity value between falsity value between single valued neutrosophic sets. Furthermore, we propose similarity measure based on falsity value between (...) single valued neutrosophic sets based on the centroid points of transformed single valued neutrosophic numbers. We also apply the proposed similarity measure between single valued neutrosophic sets to deal with pattern recognition problems. (shrink)

L'histoire de la pensée occidentale est incompréhensible sans la contribution du philosophe arabo-musulman Ibn Sina, dit Avicenne. Mais on oublie trop souvent que ce penseur majeur fut d'abord un croyant et un théologien. Voici enfin l'étude qui rend justice à la fois à son œuvre et à sa biographie. Si l'apport d'Avicenne à la pensée occidentale est incontesté, on connaît moins le théologien et sa prophétologie.0La doctrine de la prophétie d'Avicenne (980-1037), bien connue, a néanmoins fait l'objet de peu d'études. (...) C'est cette lacune que l'ouvrage de Meryem Sebti se propose de combler. En s'appuyant sur une analyse rigoureuse du système métaphysique d'Avicenne, l'auteure dévoile l'essence du prophète, dont la présence dans le monde sensible manifeste pleinement la continuité ininterrompue qui le relie au monde céleste.0A travers Avicenne, c'est aussi une vision de Dieu qui se dessine : loin d'être une figure abstraite retirée du monde et indifférente à sa souffrance, il est une source d'amour provident qui veille sur le monde sensible en y faisant advenir le prophète, qui est porteur de la Loi. Comme un maillon de la chaîne reliant le monde terrestre et le monde céleste, le prophète sait aussi illuminer les hommes de la lumière de l'intellect.0Gardien de la vérité révélée, il cultive sa prérogative. Il est aussi le fondateur de la cité juste. L'étude pionnière sur Avicenne comme homme de Dieu et sur la doctrine de sa prophétie, dont l'originalité est surtout de montrer une proximité doctrinale entre des courants de pensée habituellement opposés. (shrink)

Plus encore que la mondialisation des échanges, le commerce des hommes sur Internet et sa réglementation mettent à l'épreuve la diversité des modèles culturels et politiques marqués jusqu'ici par la souveraineté territoriale des espaces nationaux ou régionaux. L'article montre, à travers quelques exemples, comment la normativité sur Internet s'élabore de manière à la fois multiple et hétérogène avec une grande diversité de normes et d'acteurs qui interviennent pour fixer les formats d'échange, la répartition des ressources, les normes de comportement, les (...) règles du marché, les standards techniques. Les auteurs identifient quelques-uns des enjeux principaux dont la Francophonie doit se saisir en ce domaine, et proposent des pistes pour donner sens à une gouvernance francophone d'Internet, avec le triple objectif d'une approche démocratique, d'une ouverture aux pays non occidentaux et d'un plurilinguisme assumé.Even more than the globalization of exchanges, social and commercial interactions on the Internet, as well as their regulation, challenge the diversity of cultural and political models which had been determined until then by the territorial sovereignty of Nations. This paper shows, through some examples, how norms are established on the Internet in multiple and heterogeneous ways, with a great diversity of mechanisms, arenas and actors taking part in the formatting of exchanges, distribution of resources, behavioral norms, market rules, technical standards. The authors identify some of the main stakes Francophony should seize in this field, and propose ideas to build a francophone approach to Internet governance, with the triple objective of consolidating democracy, being inclusive towards non-Western countries and upholding multilingualism. (shrink)

This study examined the validity and reliability of a Turkish version of the Modified Moral Sensitivity Questionnaire for Student Nurses. After obtaining permission to adapt the MMSQSN into Turkish, the translation/back-translation method was used with expert opinions to determine content validity. Factor analysis was conducted to examine the construct validity and test–retest was performed on the questionnaire to determine reliability. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were calculated to assess for internal consistency. Participants included 272 baccalaureate degree student nurses who took ethics lessons (...) prior to their clinical internship. The factor analysis revealed that even though the factor structure in the original scale was the same, relevant items were categorized with similar components, and factor loads were sufficient. The correlation coefficient in the analyses of test–retest scores was.66 for the total scale and the Cronbach’s alpha was.73 for the total scale. The translated MMSQSN is a valid and reliable measure of ethical sensitivity in student nurses in Turkey. (shrink)

Research has found an inverse relationship between posttraumatic growth and suicidal ideation in military and community samples that holds when controlling for other suicide risk factors. However, further research is needed into the underlying mechanisms to clarify how PTG protects against the formation of suicidal ideation. The current two-wave longitudinal study examined whether perceiving PTG from recent adverse circumstances while in a national lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic attenuated the positive relationship of two interpersonal suicide risk factors – perceived burdensomeness (...) and thwarted belonginess –over 6 weeks. Participants were recruited online from Prolific from income-deprived areas in the United Kingdom. Post-hoc power analyses indicated we had insufficient power to examine the hypothesised mediation for TB. We examined whether PTG mediated the relationship between PB at wave 1 and wave 2 while controlling for depression and anxiety in a sample of individuals at-risk for suicidal ideation. PTG did significantly and partially mediate the positive relationship between PB at wave 1 and 2. We discuss the theoretical and clinical implications that could result if future research successfully replicates these initial exploratory findings. (shrink)

This paper discusses in critical terms Muhammad ‘Abd al-Jabiri’s influential philosophical work. It engages, in particular, in the analysis of the assumptions underlying the radical contrast that al-Jabiri sets up between Avicenna’s philosophy – which is supposed to represent irrationality and Gnosticism – and that of Averroes who, according to him, breaks decisively with that current of thought and thus makes exercising philosophical thought once again possible. After a close discussion of the positions of classical philosophers , the author concludes (...) that it is the very validity of the notion of “Arab reason” that has to be questioned in al-Jabiri’s analysis. (shrink)

Judaism is one of the oldest surviving religious traditions in the world. The Jews, who base their history on Abraham and his son Isaac, began to be called religion with Moses. The Jews, who lived their golden age in and around Jerusalem during the David and Solomon periods, also built the Temple, which was at the center of their religious life. The Jews, who rebuilt the Temple during the Babylonian exile and subsequently Ezra's reign, lived in these lands until the (...) destruction of the temple by the Romans in 70 AD. The statelessness that started after the destruction of the temple had an important place in the Jewish identity. The exile life, which continued for two thousand years, caused the Jews to go to different parts of the world and live there. In this period, which is expressed as the period of exile, Jews lived in many regions such as Africa, Anatolia, Europe and America. The arrival of the Jews in the Americas dates back to the Columbus era. Jews were present in South America and subsequently in the British colonies. Currently, most of the Jews in the world live in the USA. Among the Jews who went to the Americas, Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews constitute the majority. However, in the Americas, Jews have formed different groups over time. These include groups such as Conservative, Orthodox, Reformist, and Reconstructionist. Jewish groups formed by African-Americans also have a special place among these formations. These African-American Jews in the USA, are discussed within the framework of this article. In the article, firstly, a piece of brief information about Judaism in America was given, and then the relations between Blacks and Jews were discussed. Afterward, the main features of these formations, which are of African origin and consider themselves the descendants of the Israelites, are emphasized. Finally, the Jewish groups established by Black Jews were contacted and if they had different practices and beliefs from the others, they were included. The research was carried out based on the literature review and information was given about the prominent black Jewish groups. (shrink)

Analogy-making is finding analogies between different situations. In this paper, we provide a new model of computational analogy-making which uses Situation Theory as its formal background. Situation Theory is a semantic and logical theory which provides a naturalistic way to represent relations in situations. The system described in this paper is aimed at solving analogy problems made by basic geometric figures in a chessboard-like environment.

Concepts, such as death, life and spirit cannot be known in their quintessential nature, but can be defined in accordance with their effects. In fact, those who think within the mode of pragmatism and Cartesian logic have ignored the metaphysical aspects of these terms. According to Islam, the entity that moves the body is named the soul. And the aliment of the soul is air. Cessation of breathing means leaving of the soul from the body. Those who agree on the (...) diagnosis of brain death may not able to agree unanimously on the rules that lay down such diagnosis. That is to say, there are a heap of suspicions regarding the diagnosis of brain death, and these suspicions are on the increase. In fact, Islamic jurisprudence does not put provisions, decisions on suspicious grounds. By virtue of these facts, it can be asserted that brain death is not absolute death according to Islamic sources; for in the patients diagnosed with brain death the soul still has not abandoned the body. Therefore, these patients suffer in every operation performed on them. (shrink)

Many studies have been done in non-Western academia that raise the issue of indigenousness, holding that it should be taken into consideration as an important element in explaining human behaviour. It is within this context that one can regard the studies and discussions on the notion of Islamic psychology. An investigation into the literature on Islamic psychology shows that although a good number of studies on the subject have been done, sufficient attention has not been paid to its epistemological foundations, (...) e.g., its nature, origin, and scope. With regard to Islamic psychology, this study is intended to analyse the relationship between science and religion, the borders of religion and science, and the possibility of Islamic psychology as a nascent social discipline. (shrink)

This chapter aims to discuss critically the changing values in higher education within the context of culturally, ethnically and religiously plural modern European societies with a special focus on the case of emerging European Islamic higher education institutions. The inquiry argues for the need to rethink the core values in Islamic and western liberal, secular higher education in order to facilitate a new creative engagement between these two distinctive perspectives on higher education that share an intertwined intellectual legacy. The focus (...) of the study is framed by the following questions: Do central educational values of Islam and western secular higher education remain in conflict? To what extent can a critical dialogue of convergence be facilitated between the educational/pedagogic cultures of Islamic and western higher education? Why should such a critical engagement be based on a shared relational ethics of respecting the dignity of difference and recognition of mutual interdependence? The study adopts a phenomenology- infomed critical, comparative analysis method while exploring the topic within its historical and contempoaray dimensiosns. The original contribution of the inquiry lies in its reflective engagement with the Islamic and western values of higher education and developing a distinctive conceptual framework to facilitate a new pedagogic dialogue among the communities of learners and teachers coming from these educational cultures who increasingly share the same social space. After presenting the aims and context of the inquiry, a brief historical account of Islamic and western values of higher education will be provided. This will be followed by discussing the arguments supporting the incompatibility of Islamic and western values of education. The incompatibility thesis will be deconstructed by critically examining its logic of binary literalism. By drawing on the evidence suggesting presence of a shared reflective, critical educational heritage between Islam and the West, the chapter argues for the need to revive these forgotten traditions of pedagogic curiosity and critical openness to inspire a new cross-pollinating dialogue capable of acknowledging the dignity of being different and recognizing the reality of sharing an interdependent world. (shrink)

This study examines the relationship between teachers' beliefs and their practices at Key Stage 2 (ages 7-11) in relation to the use of questioning. Data were collected from interviewing and observing Key Stage 2 teachers at four schools in the West of England. A Straussian approach to grounded theory is followed broadly in order to analyse the data. In contrast to the findings of previous studies, which suggested a mismatch between teachers' beliefs and practices in that teachers, in certain respects, (...) do less than they claim, the research revealed that teachers use a variety of skills during their teaching that they may not always be aware of. It is also argued that teachers do not share researchers' language to express the way they teach. (shrink)

This is the introductory chapter I co-authored with professor Kaya Sahin for our edited book, Political Thought in the Ottoman World (oxford University Press, 2024).