The COVID-19 pandemic may affect the world severely in terms of quality of life, political, environmental, and economic sustainable development, and the global economy. Its impact is attested to by the number of research studies on it. The main aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on the psychology of sustainability, on sustainable development, and on the global economy. A computerized literature search was performed, and journal articles from authentic sources were extracted, including MEDLINE, Google Scholar, (...) Science Direct, ProQuest, and Emerald Insight. The references in selected articles were screened to identify any relevant studies. The following inclusion criteria were followed: research articles based on the COVID-19 pandemic, and articles, research papers, journals, and news articles published 2010 to 2020. The exclusion criteria were as follow: psychology research, articles, and journals published before 2010 and research articles having no link with the current pandemic’s impact on the psychology of sustainability, quality of life, and the global economy. Of the initial 350 articles identified, only 61 studies were found to be relevant and meet the inclusion criteria. Based on these articles, the review highlights that compared to developed countries, the developing nations and poor nations such as African countries with compromised health structures have been greatly affected. There are close associations between health, economic, environmental, and political issues globally. The pandemic can be managed if we follow new policies that implement economic and public health changes worldwide. A planned, coordinated approach between the public-private sector is required, designed according to each country’s health system and economy. We can come out of this crisis if we work together and support both developed and developing nations. (shrink)

Recital 33 GDPR has often been interpreted as referring to ‘broad consent’. This version of informed consent was intended to allow data subjects to provide their consent for certain areas of research, or parts of research projects, conditional to the research being in line with ‘recognised ethical standards’. In this article, we argue that broad consent is applicable in the emerging field of Computational Social Science (CSS), which lies at the intersection of data science and social science. However, the lack (...) of recognised ethical standards specific to CSS poses a practical barrier to the use of broad consent in this field and other fields that lack recognised ethical standards. Upon examining existing research ethics standards in social science and data science, we argue that they are insufficient for CSS. We further contend that the fragmentation of European Union (EU) law and research ethics sources makes it challenging to establish universally recognised ethical standards for scientific research. As a result, CSS researchers and other researchers in emerging fields that lack recognised ethical standards are left without sufficient guidance on the use of broad consent as provided for in the GDPR. We conclude that responsible EU bodies should provide additional guidance to facilitate the use of broad consent in CSS research. (shrink)

Topic of quantum chaos has begun to draw increasing attention in recent years. So, to ensure the security of digital image, an image encryption algorithm based on combining a hyperchaotic system and quantum 3D logistic map is proposed. This algorithm is applied in four stages. Initially, the key generator builds upon the foundation of mean for any row or column of the edges of the plain image. Its output value is used to yield initial conditions and parameters of the proposed (...) image encryption scheme. Next, it diffuses the plain image by the random sequences generated by 3D hyperchaotic system, and the diffusion process is realized by implementing XOR operation. Then, the diffused image and chaotic sequences are produced by the 3D quantum chaotic logistic map, expressed as a quantum superposition state using density matrix which is a representation of the state of a quantum system, and finally the resulting quantum image is then confused and diffused simultaneously by a unitary matrix generated by logistic chaos using XNOR operation to obtain the final cipher image. Because of the dependence on the plain image, the algorithm can frustrate the chosen-plaintext and known-plaintext attacks. Simulation results and theoretical analysis verify that the presented scheme has high safety performance, a good encryption effect, and a large key space. The method can effectively resist exhaustive, statistical, and differential attacks. Moreover, the encryption time of the proposed method is satisfactory, and the method can be efficiently used in practice for the secure transmission of image information. (shrink)

This paper is positioned within broader scholarly debates about ritual‐religious and psychological elements underlying the phenomenon of altered states of mind in Egyptian Muslim contexts. This research examines the intricate relationships between ritual, consciousness, and the unseen/unknowable world reflected in the imagination and practices of urban and rural communities belonging administratively to the city of Tanta in Egypt. This comparative study proposes that the image of the embodied invisible Other, in both benevolent and malevolent forms, impacts the state of consciousness (...) of persons participating in two different rituals, the zikr (remembrance of God) and the zār (the exorcism of spirits). This inquiry concentrates on the transformation of the states of people's consciousness, namely the majzūb (those mystically attracted to God) and the malbūs (those possessed by spirits), through embodied engagement with the invisible Other that is made visible through participation in the ritual performances of the zikr and/or the zār. Rituals performed by Egyptians, particularly those who experience altered states of consciousness, display both a psychic (emotional) experience and an encounter with the invisible Other that may be depicted as divine or otherwise non‐divine. Each case of the zikr ritual and zār cult relates to its participants' perception of reality. (shrink)

This article examines the images of the Arabian Gulf before and after the establishment of the Trucial States, presently the United Arab Emirates, in order to understand how such images have been constructed to change the culture of the region. Oriental images of the Arabian Gulf, reflecting the relationship between the Orient (Arab/islam) and the West, were created in different historical stages. During the first stage (1727-1819), European orientalists depicted Arab Gulf inhabitants, particularly the Qawasim tribesmen, as pirates. The British (...) considered the Qawasim to be allied with the Wahhabi movement, indicating that Arabs formed an integral part of the precarious Orient. During the second stage (1820-1891), British Empire established what is known as the Trucial States, implying the taming of the Arabian Gulf. During the third stage (1892-1971), the Trucial States became subjugated communities under the British protectorate. Ethical issues related to negative images of the Arab Gulf are discussed. (shrink)

We study the existence of weak solutions for the coupled system of functional integral equations of Urysohn-Stieltjes type in the reflexive Banach spaceE. As an application, the coupled system of Hammerstien-Stieltjes functional integral equations is also studied.

Fractional calculus is nowadays an efficient tool in modelling many interesting nonlinear phenomena. This study investigates, in a novel way, the Ulam–Hyers and Ulam–Hyers–Rassias stability of differential equations with general conformable derivative. In our analysis, we employ some version of Banach fixed-point theory. In this way, we generalize several earlier interesting results. Two examples are given at the end to illustrate our results.

In today’s digital societies, it has become very difficult for people to exercise meaningful control over what and how data is collected and used. McCoy and colleagues (2023) seek to address this p...

NoteThe following was written as a commentary on an article we published in our Spring 2023 issue, “’Comprehensive Healthcare for America’: Using the Insights of Behavioral Economics to Transform the U. S. Healthcare System,” by Paul C. Sorum, Christopher Stein, and Dale L. Moore. This commentary should have appeared alongside that article. We apologize to the authors and our readers for the error.

Background The wide proliferation of Covid-19 has impacted billions of people all over the world. This catastrophic pandemic outbreak and ostracism at work have posed challenges for all healthcare professionals, especially for nurses, and have led to a significant increase in the workload, several physical and mental problems, and a change in behavior that is more negative and counterproductive. Therefore, leadership behaviors that are moral in nature serve as a trigger and lessen the adverse workplace effects on nurses’ conduct. Aim (...) this research is directed to explore the impact of post-COVID-19 workplace ostracism on nurses’ counterproductive behavior and examine the role of moral leadership as a mediating factor in post-COVID-19 workplace ostracism and nurses’ counterproductive behavior. Ethical consideration Ethical review and approval Was received from Ethical Committee at the Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria University, Egypt. Methods A cross-sectional and correlation study was implemented in all units of medical, surgical, critical and intensive care units by using three tools; moral leadership questionnaire, Workplace Ostracism Instrument (WOS), and Counterproductive Work Behaviors Questionnaire (CWBs). A convenient sample of 340 from 699 bedside nurses was granted. Results This study revealed that nurses’ perceived moderate mean percent (55.49 ± 3.46) of overall workplace ostracism and counterproductive behavior (74.69 ± 6.15). However, they perceived a low mean percentage of moral leadership. There was a significant positive correlation between workplace ostracism and counterproductive behavior. Otherwise, a significant negative correlation was found between moral leadership, workplace ostracism and counterproductive behavior. Also, this study proved the mediating effect of moral leadership in decreasing workplace ostracism by 79.3% and counterproductive behavior by 36.7%. Conclusion Hospital administrators need to be aware of the significance of moral leadership and apply integrity in the clinical setting to reduce the drawback of isolation on nurses' conduct and increase value for the organization as a whole and nurses in particular. (shrink)

In this article, we consider estimation of the parameters of a generalized Pareto distribution and some lifetime indices such as those relating to reliability and hazard rate functions when the failure data are progressive first-failure censored. Both classical and Bayesian techniques are obtained. In the Bayesian framework, the point estimations of unknown parameters under both symmetric and asymmetric loss functions are discussed, after having been estimated using the conjugate gamma and discrete priors for the shape and scale parameters, respectively. In (...) addition, both exact and approximate confidence intervals as well as the exact confidence region for the estimators are constructed. A practical example using a simulated data set is analyzed. Finally, the performance of Bayes estimates is compared with that of maximum likelihood estimates through a Monte Carlo simulation study. (shrink)

This paper is intended as a gateway to two 2000-year-old manuscripts of the Analects. The first two sections discuss the archaeological context of the discoveries and analyse the manuscripts themselves, including characteristic features of the bamboo strips and the texts inked thereon and notable differences between these and other Analects versions. In these sections, I also critically evaluate present-day Analects studies and offer alternative hypotheses where there is room for debate. The third and final section of the paper discusses what (...) I consider the most fascinating (and most complex) issue regarding the manuscripts: their provenance. In that section, I examine when, where, and why the Analects was copied onto the bamboo strips. The ultimate goal of this paper is to present a nuanced understanding of the two bamboo manuscripts that conveys the fascinating insights they offer while also exploring the limitations of what these manuscripts can actually tell us. (shrink)

ABSTRACTTwo rival scholars from Shiraz in Persia, Dawānī and Dashtakī engaged in a bitter and extended dispute over a range of metaphysical and logical issues. One of these was the liar paradox. Their debate on this point marked the most extensive scrutiny of the paradox in Arabic until that time. Dashtakī’s solution was to deny that the statement ‘What I say is false’ is true or false, on the ground that there is one statement and one application of the falsity (...) predicate. Given that – ex hypothesi – there is no other statement, there is no basis for a reiteration of the truth or falsity predicate and describing the statement itself as true or false. Dawānī’s solution was to deny that ‘What I say is false’ is a statement at all, and he argued that it is instead akin to a performative utterance such as ‘I hereby sell you this’. (shrink)

This paper introduces the first English-language book-length study to focus on the rhetorical function of anecdotal narratives across several literary genres of early China. In this volume we seek to clarify the nature and function of early Chinese anecdotes by raising the following questions: What are their characteristic features? What are their generic boundaries, that is to say, how do they relate to other types of narrative? What degree of historical authenticity do they display? How malleable were the stories? What (...) different framing techniques did authors use to fit stock anecdotes into larger narrative contexts? What was the rhetorical power of anecdotes when used in argumentation? How does the early Chinese preference for using anecdotes in argumentation differ from modes of argumentation preferred in other eras and cultures? In addressing these and other questions, this book will advance the idea that anecdotes were an essential rhetorical tool that early Chinese writers used effectively to persuade their audience of one or another point of view. (shrink)

A man with Alzheimer's who wanders around, a caregiver who disconnects the alarm, a daughter acting on het own, and a doctor who is not consulted set the stage for a feminist reflection on capacity/competence assessment. Feminist theory attempts to account for gender inequality in the political and in the epistemological realm. One of its tasks is to unravel the settings in which actual practices, i.c. capacity/competence assessment take place and offer an alternative. In this article the focus will be (...) on a feminist ethics of care in which relationality, care, vulnerability, and responsibility are privileged concepts and attitudes. The emphasis on these notions leads to a specific view of autonomy that has consequences for both carereceivers (patients, clients) and caregivers (professional and not professional). These concepts constitute a default setting that shapes the context for capacity/competence assessment. Whereas this notion is meant to distinguish between those who need to be taken care of and those who do not, reflection on what it means to say ‘those who need to be taken care of’ is also required. The feminist analysis presented here emphasizes the necessity of the contextualization of assessment of competence. It sketches the multifold and complex grid that comprehends capacity assessment. (shrink)

Scientific realism was famously proclaimed dead back in the early 1980s (Fine 1984). Michela Massimi’s exciting new book says otherwise. For Massimi, realism is alive and well, only we need to reconsider what we take to be the defining question of scientific realism, which, to her, is best construed not along ontological lines, i.e., whether entity X exists, but along epistemological lines, i.e., how we come to reliably know nature. Put more explicitly, for Massimi, to be a realist is to (...) be able to explain “how historically and culturally situated epistemic communities have over time come to reliably advance claims of scientific knowledge” (4). -/- The role of reliability in science has been long recognized, for example, by Kitcher (1993), Oreskes (2019), and most recently Cartwright et al. (2022). What is new about Massimi’s proposal is her emphasis on the role played by scientific perspectives in assessing reliability. Particularly, her social and cooperative construal of science makes assessing the reliability of knowledge claims not the prerogative of a single epistemic community but the collective task of multiple epistemic communities, across a plurality of scientific perspectives (5). Hence, hers is a form of ‘perspectival realism.’ -/- . (shrink)

Most studies on the choices, motivations and behavior of investors consist of segmentations focused on socio-demographic characteristics such as age, income, education level, etc. Such approaches seem to simplify, even mutilate, reality by aggregating data about observable variables and considering investors as homogeneous groups. These perspectives are inspired by a scientific approach that consists of separating in order to better understand the observed phenomena. By considering individual as a “homo economicus”, that is to say, a rational and autonomous individual who (...) makes decisions motivated by material gains, these studies fail to recognize all the complexity that shapes human behavior. This paper argues that to understand the behavior and choices of investors in regards to socially responsible investing, we must consider social investors as complex individuals. In addition, we should take into account influence that the institution may exercise throughout the role of advisors and SRI promotion strategies. Our research builds on a multidimensional approach that explores to what extent demographic, environmental, social and governance issues, the trade-offs between financial return and social values, the attitudes and the role of the institution influence the decisions of individual social investors. Moreover, it adopts a more open approach by exploring the characteristics and behaviors of individual social investors in relation to those of conventional investors. Our research provides evidence from the Desjardins Fund. Qualitative and quantitative data gathered by Desjardins from online surveys are subjected to bivariate and multivariate analyses and are complimented by ten semi-structured interviews with managers, analysts, and advisors who provided further insight into SRI investment behavior and choice. The results show that while demographic characteristics still remain important in understanding the behavior and attitudes of social investors, it is their social values, ESG issues, financial return considerations and the role played by the institution in mediating investment decisions that are significantly associated with SRI portfolios. Our research highlights the complexity surrounding the phenomenon of SRI and has several implications both in terms of theory and practice. (shrink)

The objective of this paper is to highlight the functions and meanings of the verb of saying qāla in the Qurʾānic text. To define the properties of this verb, four interrelated aspects are investigated: the context, the pragmatics, the semantics and the syntax of qāla. Theory, methodology and theoretical insights from the literature dealing with verbs corresponding to qāla in other languages which view these instances as speech acts are discussed and applied. The article is divided into two sections. In (...) section 1 the notion of “speech act” is defined according to Searle and Austin. Section 2 is divided into three sub-sections according to the verb form of qāla, type of discourse and the syntactic environment. The most common contextual frame for qāla can be characterized as a conversation or a verbal exchange involving two participants. This affects the function and meaning of the verb qāla since in an interaction between two or more participants the reference to the entity transmitting the message is marked by qāla. Furthermore, the content of the message which is introduced by qāla and is usually formulated as an asyndetic clause or as a verb in the imperative form, is stressed by qāla. Finally, in interactions people can ask, assert, contradict, argue or command. All these actions are embodied by the verb qāla, which performs two illocutionary assertive and directive speech acts. (shrink)

RESUMEN: El presente texto pretende analizar la sociedad actual. En ella la tecnociencia tiene una presencia importante y ésta, a su vez, no es muy diferente con respecto a las demandas intelectuales, culturales y sociales del Barroco. Es decir, en la sociedad actual podríamos decir que sucede lo mismo, interesa más obtener resultados, que se nos asombre, más que comprender el cómo funciona o se realizan. Si bien, como aconteció en el Barroco, sectores de la sociedad emprendieron acciones para dotar (...) de más identidad y cultura a la sociedad e ir en contra de lo institucionalmente establecido. La sociedad actual, se puede decir que es una prolongación del barroco, y nos encontramos en el neobarroco. Este al igual que en el pasado se rebela contra el sistema que sólo está preocupado por la acumulación de dinero, así como contra la ausencia de libertad y, por tanto, contra la represión y la violencia institucionalizada. En definitiva, con este artículo se trata de dar una visión desde la hermenéutica de las similitudes del Barroco con nuestra sociedad actual. ABSTRACT: This paper aims to analyze current society, where techno-science has a major presence while at the same time not differing greatly from that of the Baroque era with respect to intellectual, cultural, and social demands. As in the Baroque era, we are today more interested in getting results than in understanding how things works or how things are done. Also as in the Baroque era, sectors of society are taking action to encourage more identity and culture in society and are going against what is institutionally established. Today we can say that our society is an extension of the Baroque, and that we are in the neo-Baroque era. As in the past, there is now a rebellion against a system that is only concerned with the accumulation of money, as well as a rebellion against the lack of freedom and therefore against repression and institutionalized violence. In short, this article aims to present, from the point of view of hermeneutics, similarities between our current society and that of the Baroque era. (shrink)

La teoría problemática del filósofo belga Michel Meyer abrió un nuevo horizonte filosófico y argumentativo para librar al pensamiento humano del dominio de la tendencia proposicional. Una tendencia que impuso un patrón sistemático, a lo largo de la historia del pensamiento humano, con una referencia lógica basada en los principios de no contradicción, de identidad y de tercero excluido. Este artículo se centrará en las aportaciones de la teoría llamada “de la problematologie” para liberar a la interpretación de la tiranía (...) proposicional que reduce la pluralidad de las respuestas a una dicotomía proposicional A o -A. (shrink)

The term takyīf fiqhī stands for one crucial concept in Islamic jurisprudence and refers to one of the important steps in the process of formulating fatwā. It basically revolves around the categorization of particular issues under the appropriate rules and precedents established in Islamic juristic thought. The present article attempts to examine the concept of takyīf fiqhī in a comprehensive manner in terms of its meaning, authority, types, importance, and governing criteria as can be gleaned from the works of Sharī‘ah (...) scholars. This is then followed by an exploration of its application to modern contracts, taking as a case study the Central Provident Fund Nomination in Singapore. The article concludes with the view that the Central Provident Fund Nomination, in terms of its essential characteristics and objective, resembles the Islamic will contract as discussed in books of Islamic Jurisprudence. (shrink)

İslâm felsefesinde en önde gelen âlimlerden biri olan İbn Sînâ ruh üzerine çok sayıda eser te’lif etmiştir. Bu eserlerden biri de Arap edebiyatı açısından da önemli bir yere sahip olan el-Ḳaṣîdetu’l-‘Ayniyyetu’r-Rûḥiyye fî’l-Nefs adlı kasidesidir. İbn Sînâ kasidesine ruhu, yüksek bir konumdan insan bedenine inen bir güvercine benzeterek başlamaktadır. Kasidenin devamında ruhun insan bedeninde yaşadığı tecrübeleri anlattıktan sonra ruhun bedenden ayrılmasına değinmektedir. Kasidenin sonunda nefs-i nâṭıḳanın insan bedenine indirilmesindeki hikmetin ne olduğunu sorgulamaktadır. Eser üzerine çok sayıda şerh, tercüme ve tahmîs yapılması (...) eserin ilim dünyasındaki önemine işaret etmektedir. Çalışmada kasidenin Türkçeye ilk tercümesi de olan tasavvuf üzerine önemli eserler te’lif etmiş Ali Dede el-Bosnevî’nin tercümesi ele alınmaktadır. Çalışmada ilk olarak el-Ḳaṣîdetu’r-Rûḥiyye’nin içeriği ve üzerine yapılan çalışmalara değinilmiştir. Ardından Ali Dede el-Bosnevî’nin hayatı ile eserleri, Tercüme-i Ḳaṣîde-i Rûḥiyye’nin nüshalarının tavsifi ve metin tesisinde takip edilen metot hakkında bilgi verilmiştir. Daha sonra el-Bosnevî’ye ait tercümenin temin edilen dört nüshası karşılaştırılarak transkripsiyonlu metni tesis edilmiş ve Arapça beyitler ile beraber verilmiştir. Ayrıca el-Bosnevî’nin tercümesi altına kasidenin günümüz Türkçesine yapılan tercümesi de eklenmiştir. Çalışmanın sonunda el-Bosnevî’nin tercümesi değerlendirilmiştir. (shrink)

In this paper, I submit an overall interpretation of Aristotle’s Analytics which I could express, to put it in a nutshell, by saying that the Analytics are analytic. That is, they do not lay out progressive or constructive processes, in which, given certain fundamental premises, terms or rules, one would go ahead and draw conclusions or even build a systematic body of knowledge on the basis of these principles. Rather they describe a backward movement, starting from a proposed or provisional (...) conclusion and asking which premises could be used in order to deduce, support, prove or explain it. (shrink)

Bruno Latour have been included among the ranks of social constructivism since the 1990’s. In this paper, we analyze one of Latour’s most cited -and criticized- papers, in which he sustained that to say that Ramses II died because of tuberculosis was a nonsense, as ridiculous as to say the he died “of machine gun fire”. To do that, we will contextualize his text in its historical period of production, we will identify Latour’s ontological commitments, and we will introduce his (...) theory on the construction of facts and what he calls circulating reference. We will conclude that Latour was right, neither Ramses II died because of tuberculosis, nor he is a social constructivist. (shrink)

In a certain sense, uncertainty regarding the meaning of the present itself has always accompanied the human being. But the mere persistence of the issue does not automatically make it one of those eternal questions, which we will never cease asking ourselves despite being aware that they have no answer, as a classic said. Perhaps it would be better to say that they are not eternal, but persistent, and that their relevance lies in the fact that, while the question has (...) remained for a long time the type of answers is precisely what has been changing. Answers that sought not only to understand what happens to us, but also to elucidate what to do in order to get better things happen to us than those that actually occurred. This is the same than to affirm that, whether it has recognized it or not, philosophy has always gone hand in hand with politics, and today it could not be otherwise. Hence the difference between the two following lectures. In the first one, we talk about something that happens to us, under the title “politics”, while in the second one it is addressed, under the rubric “philosophy”, the question of the distillation of knowledge that we obtain from this experience. (shrink)

Nuestro punto de partida es la concepción de Merleau-Ponty del lenguaje como "habla". Sostenemos que esta, como experiencia corporal del lenguaje -como lenguaje "en" nosotros-, permite comprender el fenómeno de la /nter-culturalidad como un fenómeno esencialmente /ntra-cultural, en el sentido de una experiencia de la cultura "desde dentro", es decir, desde la experiencia que cada quien hace del lenguaje. Este carácter endógeno e individual de pensar la cultura pone en evidencia, sin embargo, un "entre-lazamiento" recíproco originario entre lo propio y (...) lo extraño que impide de entrada privilegiar ya sea una visión universalista o totalizante o bien individualista o regionalista de la cultura. En dos momentos doy cuenta de este planteamiento: 1. Mundo de la vida y diversidad cultural y 2. El habla como lugar de acceso a las culturas. Our starting point is the conception in Merleau Ponty of language as "speech". We support this concept as corporal experience of language -as language "in" us - allows to understand the phenomenon of ¿nter-culturality as an essentially ¿ntra-cultural phenomenon, in the sense of an experience of culture "from within", that is to say; from the experience that everyone does with the language. This endogenous and individual character of thinking about culture highlights, however, a reciprocal "entanglement" originated among one's own and the strange that initially prevents to privilege, even a universal or totalizing or either an individualistic or regionalist vision of culture. Two moments I take on this approach: 1. World of life and cultural diversity. 2. Speech as an access place to the cultures. (shrink)

Resumen¿Podemos afirmar que una muerte indolora supone un daño para el individuo que muere? En este artículo se analiza el criterio más utilizado para responder afirmativamente a la pregunta. Un criterio que insiste en la necesidad de tener un interés por seguir viviendo. En el artículo pregunto si la autoconciencia requerida para la presencia del citado interés puede ser realmente condición necesaria en un análisis adecuado del daño de la muerte.Palabras claveMuerte, animales no humanos, autoconciencia,análisis privacionistaAbstractCan we say that a (...) painless death harms the individual who dies? This paper examines the criterion more frequently used to respond affirmatively to this question. It’s an approach that emphasizesthe need to have an interest in staying alive. Here I ask if the self-awarenessrequired for the presence of such interest may actually be a necessary condition in a proper analysis of the harm of death.KeywordsDeath, non human animals, self-awareness, deprivationist analys. (shrink)

The problem of determinism and freedom in the human being has always been a fruitful philosophical debate. In this discussion Spinoza is a reference in this regard, since since the publication of his works he has generated controversy around the problem. This work seeks to clarify the concept of necessity that Spinoza uses in his philosophy, in order to unravel the meaning of determinism that he builds from it. Within the analysis I show that in Spinoza’s philosophy there is no (...) clear distinction between logical necessity and metaphysical necessity. Furthermore, I argue that the concepts of contingency and possibility are de dicto and not de re issues in the author’s philosophy. That is to say, that they are not properties of the things themselves, but ways of speaking about them. Finally, I conclude that Spinoza’s thesis on determinism should be understood mainly as a necessitarianist theory, which can be compatible with a certain sense of freedom in the human being. (shrink)

El presente texto se interroga sobre los efectos performativos del himno de Chile en cuanto éste designa al país en la forma de una "copia feliz del Edén". A partir de ahí, se pregunta ¿cómo podría una copia afirmarse en la originalidad de una soberanía? Para solucionar la distancia entre copia y original y, por tanto, dar lugar al funcionamiento de la soberanía, el himno designa a esa copia como "feliz". El término "feliz" se constituye, así, en el operador que (...) vendría tanto a apuntalar a la constitución de una soberanía como a revelar el límite de su imposibilidad. "Feliz" permite disminuir la distancia entre copia y original, pero a la vez, la conserva irremediablemente. Por eso, decir que el país es la copia "feliz" es lo mismo que decir "infeliz" toda vez que ambos términos no hacen más que corroborar la diferencia ontológica entre copia y original. Se argumenta que el término "feliz" constituye un dispositivo teológico político, toda vez que replica la función angélica destinada a la administración de la creación divina. En estos términos se pregunta: ¿no será el proyecto de la República de Chile un proyecto esencialmente administrativo? A esta luz, el texto plantea la contraposición entre himno con el poema: el himno -se plantea- constituye el operador angélico que hace posible la articulación de una soberanía. El poema, en cambio, constituiría el resto irreductible que le resiste. This essay asks on the performative efects of the chilean hymn, because it names the country as a "happy copy of Eden". Since this problem, the essay asks: how could the copy may posits as the originality of the sovereignity? To solve the distance between the copy and the original and make posible the sovereignity´s operation, the hymn names the copy as "happy". The word "happy" supports the constitution of the sovereignity and reveals the limit of its own imposibility. "Happy" reduce the distance between the copy and the original but, at the same time, absolutely preserve it. That´s why, say that the country is the "happy" copy is the same than to say that is a "unhappy" one, because both words shows the ontological difference between the copy and the original. This essay argues that the word "happy" is a political theological device because repeats the angelical task of manage the divine creation. In theses terms we ask: ¿Is the chilean republican proyect an administrative one? In this light, the essay posits an aporia between the hymn and poem: the hymn constitutes the angelical operator that makes sovereignity posible, the poem constitutes a singular rest that resist it. (shrink)

San Pedro de Alcántara destaca por su vida de profundización en la vida contemplativa y mística. Un ejemplo palpable de esta actitud la encontramos su Tratado de Oración y Meditación. En esta reflexión realizamos una lectura filosófica de un párrafo de la meditación del primar día de esta obra alcantarina. Desde la antropología existencial, el autor del Tratado nos invita a la contemplación de uno mismo, para llegar a la trascendencia y la alteridad que deja su huella en lo más (...) profundo del ser personal. Saint Pedro of Alcántara stands out for his enthusiasm for a comtemplative and mystical life. A very good instance of his disposition towards this can be found in his “Tratado de Oración y Meditación”. In this reflection we can interpret philosophically a paragraph from this particular work, which deals with meditation on the first day, that is to say, on Monday. By means of existential anthropology, the author invites us to look thoroughly into ourselves so that we can reach a transcendental state which will mark our inner self. (shrink)

Se realiza un análisis crítico de la denominada ¿sociedad del conocimiento¿ al objeto de mostrar de qué modo el Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior constituye la culminación paradójica de dicha sociedad. La "sociedad del conocimiento" comienza a fraguar en el momento en el que las tecnologías, progresivamente especializadas y desprendidas del posible control científico básico de sus consecuencias, comienzan a hacer posible un proceso de optimización económica entre la inversión y la rentabilidad productiva que resulta realimentado a su vez por (...) un consumo tendencialmente imparable. Dicho proceso requiere en principio promover el mapa sociológico que provea el soporte educativo para un mercado de trabajo acorde con dicha sociedad económico-tecnológicamente optimizada y consumista. Pero debido a la dinámica consumista tendencialmente imparable sobre la que gira todo este proceso, las relaciones entre la oferta y la demanda del mercado de consumo, y con ellas las exigencias del mercado de trabajo, comenzarán a tornarse previsiblemente aleatorias o imprevisibles, lo cual demandará la creación del correspondiente soporte educativo que genere un nuevo tipo de profesional máxima e indefinidamente versátil. Ésta sería la necesidad a la que pretende responder básicamente el proyecto del EEES, el cual se verá envuelto de este modo en la tarea paradójica de intentar gobernar lo ingobernable, o sea lo previsiblemente imprevisible. A su vez, dicho proceso de suyo desordenado se verá sometido, por efecto de la intervención pedagógica, a una dinámica incesante de reproducción ampliada por realimentación negativa que cumplirá la singular función de sostener en marcha lo que en realidad no conduce a ningún sitio. We carry out a critical analysis of the so-called "knowledge society" in order to show in what way the European Space for Higher Education constitutes the paradoxical culmination of this society. The "knowledge society" begins to solidify when the technologies, progressively specialized and separated from the possible basic scientific control of their consequences, begin to make possible a process of economic optimization between the investment and the productive profitability that is in turn feedbacked for a consumption increasingly unstoppable. This process requires in principle to promote the sociological map that provides the educational... support for a labor market in agreement with this economic-technologically optimized and full of consumerism society. But due to the increasingly unstoppable dynamics of consumerism which is the axis of rotation of all this process, the relationships between supply and demand within the consumption market, and with them the requirements of the labor market, will begin foreseeably to become random or unforeseeable, which will requires the creation of the corresponding educational support that generates a new type of maximum and indefinitely versatile professional. This one would be the necessity to which the project of the ESHE seeks basically to respond, but this project will thus be wrapped in the paradoxical task of trying to govern that which is ungovernable, that is to say that which is foreseeably unforeseeable. In turn, this process intrinsically disordered will be subjected, for effect of the pedagogic intervention, to an incessant dynamics of enlarged reproduction by negative feedback that will complete the singular function of sustaining in progress that which in fact do not take to any place. (shrink)

SPANISH: Las parejas del mismo sexo tienen razón cuando dicen que negarles el matrimonio es discriminar contra ellas; pero otorgar el matrimonio a las parejas del mismo sexo sin dar a familias no conyugales los beneficios que el matrimonio provee remediaría la injusticia hacia las primeras sin subsanar la iniquidad hacia las segundas. Crear una sociedad que favorece solo una opción para reconocer las relaciones de serio compromiso no debe ser la meta de un movimiento progresista. -/- ENGLISH: Same-sex couples (...) are right when they say that denying them marriage is discriminating against them; but granting marriage to same-sex couples without giving non-marital families the benefits marriage provides would remedy the injustice towards the former without correcting the iniquity towards the latter. Creating a society that favors only one option to recognize committed relationships should not be the goal of a progressive movement. -/- . (shrink)

The surah of el-Muddaththir is one of the first surahs of the Qurʾān according to the chronological order of the revelation. In this surah, between the verses 11-26, the story of the harsh opposition by polytheists of Mecca is told through the story of Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah. In this study, we tried to examine these verses in the framework of the social psychological models named “social identity theory”, “realistic conflict theory” and “stereotype psychology”, which are subgroups of the discipline of (...) social psychology. This study includes the interdisciplinary collaboration between theology and social science and supports that using social science as a tool to understand the Qurʾān will be insightful. This study consists of two parts. The first part includes the theoretical background information about the relevant concepts of social psychology. The second part explains the Qurʾānic verses in the light of these social psychology concepts. SUMMARY According to the social identity theory that was developed under the discipline of social psychology, every individual has two types of identities; one personal identity and one social identity. Personal identity refers to individual’s specific qualities such as his/her psychological characteristics or physical and mental capacities. On the other hand, an individual’s social identity takes form as a result of his/her involvement in groups with the same race, religion, or political views as himself/herself. In this context, when an individual expresses his/her social identity, that individual actually reflects his/her involvement in such groups. The phenomenon of which identity would govern on individual’s behavior highly depends on his/her mental or social state. The realistic conflict theory proposes competition may arise as a result of conflicting goals between different group members. This competition to reach similar goals would result in an intergroup hostility. The competition between groups would create to a biased positive view for the group that the individual is a part of and negative view about the other group. This would lead to creating stereotypes against the other group. In social psychology, stereotype is described as images in an individual’s mind, which are partially constructed by the individual’s social environment and partially constructed by the individual’s personality. These stereotypes determine our behavior and expectations against the outside world, so that they help us filter out the objective reality and shape the way that we perceive the events, other individuals or other groups. The stereotypes created against the other group are not created by only a couple crazy or neurotic members. In contrast, in the case of a fight between two groups, the stereotypes are created by the members of each groups, who are known to be the most reliable and influential individuals. In this study, the verses 11-25 of el-Muddaththir are studied using the framework explained above. The verses 11-17 mention the worldly goods that are given by Allah to Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah, without mentioning his name explicitly. However, Walīd continues to be greedy and obstinate toward the verses revealed by Allah. Therefore, the verses mention that he will be obliged to climb a slippery mountain, his life in the world will turn to a misery, and he will suffer in the afterlife. If the story is evaluated in the framework of the social psychology theories, it can be concluded that the verses actually refer to the group of disbelievers/polytheists for which Walīd was a prominent figure, as well as Walīd himself. Obviously, he was not alone and the verses indicated that the polytheists of Mecca formed an opposition group; therefore, they formed a different social identity. As a conclusion, there were one group of disbelievers and another of group of believers which were going to be the subject of the following verses of the Qurʾān. The social identity of the polytheists would also play a significant role in their daily decisions. The two circumstances that were believed to be the asbāb al-nuzūl (occasions of revelation) of the verses that were reviewed above supports this conclusion. The verses 18-26 discuss what Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah’s tribe would prefer him to say about the Qurʾān. These verses not only simply repeat his words “This is not but magic imitated (from others), this is not but the word of a human being", but also reflect the way he thinks with his strong negative attitude; i.e., the grimace on his face, the way he reacts with frowning and turning his back... In social psychology, the expressions of Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah can be described as “stereotypes.” These expressions are considered as one of the first stereotypes about the Qurʾān because it is discussed in some of the early verses according to the chronological order of revelation. Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah must have said these words under the influence of his social identity. In other words, these expressions must be a product of the intergroup conflict between the believers and the disbelievers against the believers’ claim of the Qurʾān being the words of Allah. The behavior of ʿUmar against the Qurʾān is also as important as the behavior of Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah. Both of them were deeply affected by the charm of the Qurʾān; however, ʿUmar chose to believe in the Qurʾān hile Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah ended up with denial. We believe that different behaviors of these two individuals are due the influence of their personal and social identities on their decisions. The choice of ʿUmar can be explained by his personal identity being dominant than his social identity. On the other hand, Walīd’s choice was a result of his social identity suppressing his personal identity, as well as stereotypes being more influential on him. In other words, ʿUmar made a choice with his personal identity rather than the disbeliever social identity. This would fit better with his personality because he was a clever, independent thinker that would help him make rational choices. The social group that he was a member of was not powerful enough to have an influence on him. In addition, he was not in a leadership position in Mecca. On the other hand, Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah was a poet and he was rich, as well as he was a prominent figure in Mecca. He was even one of the people that the polytheists of Mecca claimed that the Qurʾān could have been revealed to. Therefore, it was more likely for Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah to behave under the influence of his social identity because he had more dominant and strong ties to his social identity compared to ʿUmar. (shrink)

Leibnizian senses of temporality are analized, in order to assess that Leibniz’s formal and a priori notion of time is based on his own modal metaphysics. In this way, we can say that time constitutes the notion that allows the modalities articulation (Possibility-Necessity-Contingency) as well as the role of modal concepts allows to control the time.

The philosophy devoted to the sacred knowledge of Athena has suffered an undeniable castration in modernity, because, following Sloterdijk, it has been related to the cynic, subjugation to appearance. For this reason, German literature differentiates between Kynismus and Zynismus. The kynysmós with "k" refers to the wise dogs of the agora and the Zynismus to the toothless Papillon. Under the keys of modernity, philosophy is camouflaged in moderation, good saying and salon etiquette, thereby abandoning the stridency, sarcasm and challenge that (...) the school of Diogenes practiced; but what was that insolence? What was his speech? What were his gestures? These are some of the questions addressed in this article; therefore, the reflection on the figure of the cynic, by the hand of the author of Critique of Cynical Reason, has been central to elucidate some of these questions and, why not, obscure them, after all, the interstices of the words are deeper. For methodological reasons, the text is divided into three sections: first, Resonances of a supplanted concept, in which the link between insolence and the cynical is investigated; second, Philosophical gestures, where the grimaces of an impertinent thought are drawn and third, Conclusions. (shrink)

In 1917 the Provisional Government of the Russian Empire orders to the soldiers to renew their oath of allegiance, not to the decayed Emperor but rather to the State. Many soldiers refuse to do so and proclaim: «If there is no more Gosudar, there is no Gosudarstvo». The elites understand: «If there is no Emperor, there is no State», even though the soldiers are saying «if there is no Master, there is no Master's domain». The immediate reason of this misunderstanding (...) lies in the polisemy of the two Russian concepts, but its temporal structure is problematic. The historical-conceptual analysis discovers a temporal relationship among concepts and states of things which is not visible from the social history's point of view. (shrink)

For Lipman, Dewey's influence translates into a certain conception of and relationship between democracy, citizenship and education. The present work, however, does not focus so much on Lipman’s deweyan base -which has been fruitfully explored-, as in the particular articulation that Lipman made of those notions for his Philosophy for Children proposal. The way in which our author configures the Community of Inquiry puts Philosophy in a central but paradoxically secondary place. That is to say, in the CI Philosophy is (...) articulated with the "democracy as investigation" in such a way that the scope of possibilities left to Philosophy is limited. We believe that one of the main factors of this limitation is the deliberationist conception of dialogue in the CI. This is what we will try to unravel here, as an initial step in a work that will require successive explorations. (shrink)

For some of Plato’s commentators some passages of the Republic and the Parmenides provide a clear guideline regarding the extension of the noetic “world”, namely, a criterion that allows us to know what kind of Platonic forms there are, and which there are not. There are forms only for a pair of opposite properties such as “big” and “small”; indeed, smallness itself is not what appears to the senses, since each sensible instance of smallness appears “mixed” with its opposite, bigness. (...) On the contrary, things that are perceived by the senses such as fingers, do not have an eidos. However, a more careful reading of the relevant passages, taking into account what Socrates says in 476a about the unity and multiplicity of the forms, will show us the incorrectness of this interpretation. (shrink)