Plagiarism has been on the rise amongst university students in recent decades. This study puts university teachers in the spotlight and investigates their role in raising students’ awareness about plagiarism. To that end, plagiarism policies in 207 Iranian university TEFL teachers’ syllabuses were analyzed. The researchers analyzed the syllabuses to find out if they contain a plagiarism policy, and if so, how the term is defined; whether they approach the issue of plagiarism directly; if they offer students any guidelines on (...) how to avoid plagiarism; and if the consequences of committing plagiarism are specified. The results indicated that the majority of the syllabuses lacked a plagiarism policy and those that did include a policy were often vague in their definition of the phenomenon. However, when there was a plagiarism policy in the syllabuses, the teachers tried to address the issue directly half of the time and offered students brief guidelines on how to avoid plagiaristic behavior, which was a small step in the right direction. It is recommended that other higher education institutions make it obligatory for their academic staff to include a plagiarism policy in their syllabuses if they wish to cultivate academic integrity in students. (shrink)

This study examines the Qurʾān’s view towards gender and argues that all three masculine, feminine and egalitarian discourses exist in its text, and that these discourses do not follow a simple and linear model but rather a nonlinear and complex one. It also provides evidence, showing that gender equality in the Qurʾān is achieved in two ways: firstly, through linguistic devices that are devoid of gender distinctions, and secondly, through concurrent use of masculine and feminine gender markers in one context. (...) The masculine discourse is, however, more prominent in the verses of this book and manifests itself to varying degrees in three ways: in some verses, only masculine indicators are used but it can be inferred based on the principle that both men and women are the intended addressees; in some verses, rules regarding women are stipulated, whilst men are, in fact, the main addressees and in verses that state rules on reciprocal issues such as divorce and marriage but these rules are addressed to only men. The feminine discourse is also present in the Qurʾān and can be seen in verses that address women.Contribution: Revealing gender discourses in the Qurʾān requires not only a historical but also an integrative and holistic understanding of its text. This study attempts to identify the relation of the Qurʾān to the three gender discourses based on the linguistic elements of the text and their classification. (shrink)

To a greater extent than in other technical domains, research and progress in Artificial Intelligence has always been entwined with the fictional. Its language echoes strongly with other forms of cultural narratives, such as fairytales, myth and religion. In this essay we present varied examples that illustrate how these analogies have guided not only readings of the AI enterprise by commentators outside the community but also inspired AI researchers themselves. Owing to their influence, we pay particular attention to the similarities (...) between religious language and the way in which the potential advent of greater than human intelligence is presented contemporarily. We then move on to the role that fiction, science fiction most of all, has historically played and is still playing in the discussion of AI by influencing researchers and the public, shifting the weights of different scenarios in our collectively perceived probability space. We sum up by arguing that the lore surrounding AI research, ancient and modern, points to the ancestral and shared human motivations that drive researchers in their pursuit and fascinate humanity at large. These points of narrative entanglement where AI meets the wider culture should serve to amplify the call to engage ourselves with the discussion of the potential destination of this technology. (shrink)

Speaking of relations between logic and religion in Islamic world may refer to logic in two respects: logic in religious texts, from doctrinal sacred texts such as Qur’ān and sayings of the Prophet to the Qur’ānic commentaries and the texts related to the principles and fundamentals of jurisprudence, all of which make use of some reasoning to persuade the audiences or to infer the rules and prescripts for religious behavior of the members of religious community; and logic as a discipline (...) that is studied and applied both independently and as a tool for reasoning in schools of Islamic theology, systems of Islamic philosophy, and other types of knowledge in medieval Islamic world, all being strongly influenced by religious doctrines of Islam. Accordingly, this paper speaks of the different manifestations of using logical reasoning, particularly analogy, in Qur’ānic arguments, e.g. for the existence of God and resurrection after death; some contradictions or paradoxes reported by different opponents in the verses of Qur’ān; the place of logic in the classification of disciplines and the courses taught at the schools and seminaries; the influence of the attitudes of different religious sects on logic; the instrumental role of logic for both religious and secular reasonings; the relation between reason and dogmatic religious doctrines, and, finally, the reflection of this relation on progress or recession of logic in medieval Islamic world. (shrink)

The religious rites of Shia remain a mystery to Malaysia’s Sunnite majority. One such rite is the ziyarat. This essay highlights the ritualsconducted and performed by Malaysian Shi’ites during their seasonal pilgrimage to Iran and Iraq. Their rituals and behaviors during these pilgrimages to holy shrines in Iran and Iraq were documented from the standpoint of a cultural anthropologist. Rites from two sites, Mashad and Karbala, are presented in this study. Applying Herbert Blumer’s symbolic interactionism as a conceptual framework, and (...) Charles Brooks’s methodology through social interaction and participant-observation, this essay aims to analyze and understand their rites, and the values and significance of these rites. By doing so, the axiological aspects of the rites were observed and clarified, thus enabling non Shi’ite Muslims to perceive greyest area of Shia rites, as performed by Shi’ites from Malaysia in their pilgrimage to Iran and Iraq. (shrink)

The validity of a standardised test is questioned if an irrelevant construct is accounted for the performance of examinees, which is wrongly modeled as the ability in the construct. A test must ensure precision in the examinee's ability irrespective of their sub-population in any demographic variables. This paper explored the potentials of gender and school location as major covariates on the West African Examinations Council mathematics items among examinees using Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling. The results remarked that the test is (...) multidimensional with compliance fix indices of =4882.024, p < 0.05, CFI=0.962, TLI=0.930, RMSEA=0.038, SRMR=0.030, 90 % CI=0.037-0.039, Akaike information criterion =147290.577, Bayesian information criterion =149585.436 and Sample-size adjusted BIC=148362.154) respectively. Also, there were 10 significant DIF items in the WAEC to gender, while 3 of the items indicated significant DIF to school location. Observed DIF items acquaint test developers; the existence of DIF may differentially affect the performance of examinees with the same ability level. The implications of the test are severe for the examinees. Hence, accurate and unbiased assessment should be the basic principles for any test item measurement, and test developers need to test the items to be free from biases psychometrically. (shrink)

This article introduces and presents a transcription and annotated translation of a medical text in Ottoman Turkish authored by Mūsā Cālīnūs. The treatise is entitled Risāla fī Tabā’i‘ al-adviya va-isti‘mālihā. This article analyses the degrees of the qualities of various materia medica and how, on that basis, certain drugs affect, effect, and preserve health. There are three reasons why this brief, seemingly pedestrian text merits more extensive study. First, it refers to the medieval Latin physicians Bernard de Gordon and Arnaldo (...) di Villanova for perhaps the first time in Turkish literature. Second, Mūsā Cālīnūs must have believed that there was an audience at Beyazid II’s court for the contents of medical texts composed in Latin. Third, as Mūsā Cālīnūs is a probable conduit through which information about the astronomy of Islamic societies could have reached the Veneto around 1500, his interest in the contents of Latin medical texts meant that he was a scholarly intermediary who carried information in at least two directions. (shrink)

This article explores contemporary development of a minority of Muslim in the largest Muslim country Indonesia. It closely examines the minority Muslim Papuan and looks at the construction and the institutionalisation of Muslim identity in post-special autonomy of Papua. Through a series of fieldwork in Jayapura, the capital of the Papua Province, in 2016 and reviews of documents, the article argues that the Council of Papuan Muslim serves not only a the association of minority Muslim Papuan but also as a (...) political instrument for the minority to fight for equality in Papuan public sphere. Importantly, the Muslim Papuan try reconcile the popular, but contradicted, notion of Muslim -and Islam- as newcomer -if not to mention as the colonial- in Papua and the presence of Muslim as a symbolic expectation for progress of the Papuan in general. Thus, the institutionalization of Islam, through the establishment of The Majelis Muslim Papua in Papua resorts as an ample case where multiculturalism is tested in contemporary Indonesia. (shrink)

This paper is going to explore the issue about the construction of Muslim identity in Papua. There are many challenges faced by Muslim particularly on identity in Papua. The existence of Muslim placed in Majelis MuslimPapua provides strongly the collectives of Muslim. The well-beings give in the changes of relation patterns among communities in Papua. Muslim is being seen as the one that can change Papua including demographics, politics, and economics. This paper has been done in Jayapura city since 2016. (...) The data are collected through observation, in-depth interview, and literature review. There are three findings in this study. The first finding is that Majelis MuslimPapua is not only the communication media for Muslim people but also the fights media for Muslim of Papua after the special autonomy prevailed. Majelis Muslim Papua is a response of the relationship dynamic of all people in Papua especially in Jayapura which is so dynamic. The second is Muslim of Papua is being taken as the power to change in Papua especially on the citizens’ composition or demography according to the religions. Immigrants who come in Papua are strongly working on the changes in cultures and structures which are built before. The last finding is the existence of Muslim of Papuaestablishes multiculturalism and admits each other in the lives of Papua that is more open. (shrink)

FIM ÚLTIMO DA VIDA DO INDIVÍDUO E NÃO DA ESPÉCIE, A MORTE NÃO SIGNIFICA PARA SCHOPENHAUER O FIM DA VONTADE ENQUANTO ESSÊNCIA, ISTO É, DO QUERER-VIVER INDESTRUTÍVEL. A VISÃO DA MORTE COMO “MUSA DA FILOSOFIA” E DA FILOSOFIA COMO “PREPARAÇÃO PARA A MORTE” LIGA-SE À IMPORTÂNCIA DO ORGANISMO E DE SEU CICLO VITAL NO PENSAMENTO DO FILÓSOFO. ESSE SERÁ O PONTO DE PARTIDA PARA MOSTRAR A INTERDEPENDÊNCIA DE SUAS REFLEXÕES SOBRE A ÉTICA E, ACIMA DE TUDO, DA SUA CONDENAÇÃO (...) DO SUICÍDIO, EM RELAÇÃO À SUA METAFÍSICA IMANENTE DA VONTADE COMO QUERER-VIVER, INCONTROLÁVEL PELO ARBÍTRIO INDIVIDUAL. DESSE MODO, UMA TAL “FILOSOFIA DA NATUREZA” MOSTRA O SEU PRESSUPOSTO: A IMPOSSIBILIDADE DE CONTROLE, POR QUALQUER INSTÂNCIA EXTERIOR, DESSE IMPULSO PRIMORDIAL. EM CONTRAPARTIDA, PÕE-SE A DIFERENÇA ABISSAL ENTRE A MORTE DO INDIVÍDUO E A NEGAÇÃO DA ATIVIDADE DA VONTADE. (shrink)

U radu se najprije razmatra značaj Nietzscheovih ideja za genezu i razvoj književnoteorijskih koncepcija Harolda Blooma, pri čemu je najveća pažnja posvećena revizionističkim temeljima ideje »straha od utjecaja«, kao i Bloomovoj polemici s onim suvremenim teorijskim orijentacijama koje je objedinio pežorativnom oznakom »škola resantimana«. Potom se pojedini elementi Bloomove poetike sučeljavaju s ničeanskim naslijeđem prisutnim kod dvojice filozofa, Michela Foucaulta i Richarda Rortyja, da bi se ukazivanjem na sličnosti i razlike – ali i na stavove koje su o naznačenim pitanjima (...) zauzeli autori poput Gillesa Deleuza i Paula de Mana – potvrdilo kako Nietzscheovo djelo, pored ostalog i zahvaljujući mogućnostima različite interpretacije, posjeduje ona svojstva koja Bloom naziva »kanonskima «. (shrink)

Recent history is replete with scandalous acts and charitable acts within the business community. Unfortunately, scandalous acts seem to occur with greater frequency than charitable acts – at least as reported in the broadcast and print media. An interesting corollary to the incidence of scandalous and charitable acts is the apparent differential involvement of men and women, particularly in scandals. This article explores a possible explanation for the apparent gender differential in involvement in scandals and acts of charity. Drawing on (...) a conceptual framework of three Fundamental Moral Orientations (FMOs) – selfishness, self-fullness, and selflessness – and relevant literature on gender effects, this article explores whether men and women are perceived as differing fundamentally in how they approach moral dilemmas. This phenomenon is examined with a sample of personnel (n = 682) from the hotel industry in Turkey. Results of the study indicate that gender has some effect on the perceived adoption of FMOs, and that these gender effects are generally consistent across age, educational level, and organizational rank categories. Implications of the findings are discussed. (shrink)

Ateistlerin teizmi reddetme gerekçeleri, genellikle kötülük sorununun teizme karşı en güçlü argüman olduğunu iddia etmelerinde yatmaktadır. Nitekim ateizme göre teizm, bu soruna başarılı bir şekilde cevap verememektedir. Bununla birlikte kötülük sorununun sadece teistler için bir problem olmadığı iddia edilebilir. Bizde bu makale içerisinde bu savdan yola çıkarak, yakın dönemde Yujin Nagasawa’nın geliştirdiği “sistematik kötülüğün varoluşsal sorunu” açısından bu iddiayı ele almaya çalıştık. Bu sorun, başlangıçta, yalnızca dünyadaki belirli olayların veya belirli olay türlerinin kötü olduğunu değil, aynı zamanda insan varoluşunun dayandığı (...) tüm biyolojik sistemlerin kötü olduğunu göstererek, teizm için bir meydan okuma yaratmaktadır. Ancak hem teistlerin hem de ateistlerin tipik olarak dünyanın genel olarak iyi olduğunu ve içinde yaşamaktan mutlu ve minnettar olmamız gerektiğini onaylayan varoluşsal iyimserliği benimsedikleri düşünüldüğünde, kötülüğün bu versiyonu, teizm için olduğu kadar, ateizm içinde bir problem olmaktadır. Makale içerisinde sorunun bu versiyonuna yanıt verirken ateizmin teizme kıyasla önemli bir dezavantajla karşı karşıya kalması nedeniyle, bunun ateizme karşı güçlü bir argüman olabileceğini iddia ediyoruz. (shrink)

İlahî vahyin son halkası olan Kur’ân, şirk, küfür, nifak ve zulmün her türlüsünden insanlığı kurtarmak için gönderilmiştir. Kur’ân, kendini yeni bir medeniyyet tasavvuru olarak insanlığa takdim etmiştir. Bunun için kendisine inananların, onu okuma, anlama ve hayatlarına rehber olmasını istemektedir. Müslümanlar, Kur’ân’ı sadece telaffuz ederek onun istediği bu rehberliği yerine getirmiş olamazlar. Müslümanlar, hem ellerinde bulunan Kur’ân âyetlerinden ve hem de çevrelerinde yer alan ve her gün yüz yüze kaldıkları kâinattaki âyetlerden gereğince istifade etmek zorundadırlar. Kur’ân, kendisini kabul edenlerin inanç, ibadet, (...) kişilik, kimlik, düşünce yapısı ve davranışlarının tevhide göre şekillenmesini ister. Şâyet Kur’ân’a inananların bu özelliklerinde bir değişim meydana gelmiyorsa, burada sorgulanması gereken çok ciddi problemler var demektir. Hiç kuşkusuz bugünkü Kur’ân eğitimi yöntemiyle, Kur’ân’ın istediği medeniyet seviyesini ve mü’min kişilikleri oluşturmamız mümkün değildir. Bu makalede hem Kur’ân’la olan ilişkilerimizin nasıl olması gerektiğini hem de toplumsal anlamda değişim ve dönüşümün esaslarını belirlemeye çalıştık. (shrink)

Background: Nurse managers have the burden of experiencing frequent ethical issues related to both their managerial and nursing care duties, according to previous international studies. However, no such study was published in Malaysia. The purpose of this study was to explore nurse managers' experience with ethical issues in six government hospitals in Malaysia including learning about the way they dealt with the issues. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in August-September, 2010 involving 417 (69.2%) of total 603 nurse managers in (...) the six Malaysian government hospitals. Data were collected using three-part self-administered questionnaire. Part I was regarding participants' demographics. Part II was about the frequency and areas of management where ethical issues were experienced, and scoring of the importance of 11 pre-identified ethical issues. Part III asked how they dealt with ethical issues in general; ways to deal with the 11 pre-identified ethical issues, and perceived stress level. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, cross-tabulations and Pearson's Chi-square. Results: A total of 397 (95.2%) participants experienced ethical issues and 47.2% experienced them on weekly to daily basis. Experiencing ethical issues were not associated with areas of practice. Top area of management where ethical issues were encountered was "staff management", but "patient care" related ethical issues were rated as most important. Majority would "discuss with other nurses" in dealing generally with the issues. For pre-identified ethical issues regarding "patient care", "discuss with doctors" was preferred. Only 18.1% referred issues to "ethics committees" and 53.0% to the code of ethics. Conclusions: Nurse managers, regardless of their areas of practice, frequently experienced ethical issues. For dealing with these, team-approach needs to be emphasized. Proper understanding of the code of ethics is needed to provide basis for reasoning. (shrink)

La interpretación literaria de las últimas décadas refleja ante todo un agotamiento de la posmodernidad. La crítica a la metamorfoseada herencia de la Ilustración no ofrece nada nuevo desde hace lustros. La teoría literaria difundida durante los últimos años se manifiesta como un estertor de la retórica posmoderna que nos sitúa una y otra vez en el mismo callejón sin salida. Las «musas de la ira» parecen haber conducido la investigación sobre literatura, cultura, problemas intelectuales y políticos, hacia una guerra (...) ideológica contra la imagen de Occidente, y contra las Ideas de Ciencia y Razón, que a día de hoy es ya completamente improductiva. El problema de los falsos problemas es que exigen soluciones también falsas. A partir del Materialismo Filosófico construido por el filósofo español Gustavo Bueno, este libro expone una nueva y diferente Teoría de la Literatura, de naturaleza racionalista, científica, crítica y dialéctica, cuyo fin es la interpretación de las Ideas objetivadas formalmente en los materiales literarios. La Teoría de la Literatura será, en suma, el conocimiento científico y racional de estos materiales literarios. Y su fin es demostrar que la Literatura es inteligible, como obra que brota de la razón humana, que se abre camino hacia la libertad a través de la lucha y el enfrentamiento dialéctico, y que se desarrolla a través de un proceso comunicativo de dimensiones históricas, geográficas y políticas. (shrink)

The relationship between postcolonialism and feminism is often complicated and conflict-laden in its struggles against empire and patriarchy and its related social categories of oppression. The question is, How have African women in former colonies balanced their act? To address this question, the article focusses on Boleo, A Setswana Novel. Firstly, theories of post-coloniality and feminism are explored. Secondly, four creative African women writers are analysed for their take on the intersection of postcolonialism and feminism prior to reading Boleo, A (...) Setswana Novel. Thirdly, the analysis of Boleo indicates boundary crossing and cross-border oppressions and solidarity in the struggle against apartheid that features a female protagonist and other minor characters. It is proposed that because the novel equates apartheid with sin, it thus constructs salvation as the concerted communal efforts of resistance and suspicion towards the institutions of the oppressor, characterised by baitiredi [independent or self-actualising workers], a political movement founded by Boleo. The analysis of the African novel indicates that the struggle against colonial and patriarchy gave rise to the First Things First; Second Things First and Both Things Simultaneously approaches, which are evident within African women creative writers.Contribution: This article adheres to the journal’s scope and vision by its focus on a systematic, historical, exegetical and practical reflection within a paradigm in which the intersection of philosophy, religious studies, social sciences and humanities generate an interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary contested discourse. (shrink)

This article is an amalgam of four talks given over several days at The Community of Women and Men in Mission Conference. The overall title `Who do you say that I am?' covers the subjects of Jesus the Liberator, The Healer, The One Who Empowers, and The One Who Sends Us. The author explores these issues in the context of Africa and opens a very illuminating set of questions.

In this article, we discuss the challenges facing humanities researchers approaching studies in clinical and community health settings. This crossing of disciplines has arguably been less often explored in the countries we discuss—Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa—but our experiences also speak to broader trouble with disciplinary ‘ethnocentrism’ that hampers the development of knowledge. After a brief contextualising overview of the structures within our universities that separate or link the humanities, medicine and social science, we use case studies of our experiences (...) as an arts researcher, an anthropologist and a historian to draw attention to the methodological clashes that can hobble research between one disciplinary area and another, whether this manifests in the process of applying for ethical clearance or a professional wariness between healthcare practitioners and humanities scholars in health spaces. We argue overall for the great potential of humanities in the health ‘space’—as well as the need for improved dialogue between the disciplines to bring a diverse community of knowledge to bear on our understandings of experiences of health. And we suggest the need for a robust awareness of our own positions in relation to medicine, as humanities scholars, as well as a patient persistence on both sides of the humanities–health science equation to create a broader and ultimately more effective research system. (shrink)