Johann Galtung in one of his lectures talks of a painting that hung in the ante-room of the late Ghanaian leader Kwame Nkrumah. It was a giant picture of Nkrumah himself struggling loose from his chains. There is thunder and lightning in the air, and in one corner of the picture are three men, three white men. The first is a capitalist and he carries a briefcase. The second is a missionary and he clutches a Bible. The third, the meekest (...) looking carries a book whose title can be barely read. It is African Political Systems, and the third man is an anthropologist. (shrink)

This entry counters the paradigmatic status of modern western science by pointing to the existence of alternative knowledges that precede this hegemonic form, and by showing the fruitfulness of alternative sciences that have emerged in contemporary times. It argues that the idea of an alternative science demonstrates that issues of knowledge determine the possibilities of a politics that connects the question of alternative lifeworlds to alternative livelihoods, lifestyles and life cycles.

The essay traces the definitions of nation through various stages, outlining the consequences of each definition. It emphasizes that the movement to exclusivity has been genocidal and then hints at the possibility of re-reading the idea of nation.

BackgroundClinical ethics consultations can be complex interventions, involving multiple methods, stakeholders, and competing ethical values. Despite longstanding calls for rigorous evaluation in the field, progress has been limited. The Medical Research Council proposed guidelines for evaluating the effectiveness of complex interventions. The evaluation of CEC may benefit from application of the MRC framework to advance the transparency and methodological rigor of this field. A first step is to understand the outcomes measured in evaluations of CEC in healthcare settings. ObjectiveThe primary (...) objective of this review was to identify and map the outcomes reported in primary studies of CEC. The secondary objective was to provide a comprehensive overview of CEC structures, processes, and roles to enhance understanding and to inform standardization.MethodsWe searched electronic databases to identify primary studies of CEC involving patients, substitute decision-makers and/or family members, clinicians, healthcare staff and leaders. Outcomes were mapped across five conceptual domains as identified a priori based on our clinical ethics experience and preliminary literature searches and revised based on our emerging interpretation of the data. These domains included personal factors, process factors, clinical factors, quality, and resource factors. ResultsForty-eight studies were included in the review. Studies were highly heterogeneous and varied considerably regarding format and process of ethical intervention, credentials of interventionist, population of study, outcomes reported, and measures employed. In addition, few studies used validated measurement tools. The top three outcome domains that studies reported on were quality, process factors, and clinical factors. The majority of studies examined multiple outcome domains. All five outcome domains were multidimensional and included a variety of subthemes.ConclusionsThis scoping review represents the initial phase of mapping the outcomes reported in primary studies of CEC and identifying gaps in the evidence. The confirmed lack of standardization represents a hindrance to the provision of high quality intervention and CEC scientific progress. Insights gained can inform the development of a core outcome set to standardize outcome measures in CEC evaluation research and enable scientifically rigorous efficacy trials of CEC. (shrink)

This book takes a fascinating look at the linguistic, psychological, and anthropological implications of Sue Savage-Rumbaugh's work with Kanzi--a bonobo who has achieved stunning cognitive and linguistic skills.

Vedāntadeśika is one of many Sanskrit intellectuals who wrote prolifically in both poetic and philosophical genres. This essay considers how his poetry is related to his philosophical concerns. Scholars have understood the relationship between his poetry and philosophy in a number of ways, some arguing that his poetry permitted a freer exploration of his philosophical ideas, others wishing to discuss his poems independently of his philosophy. My paper will propose a distinct way of understanding this relationship by focusing specifically on (...) a strain of Vedāntadeśika’s poetry inspired by Kālidāsa. Examining selections from his poetry alongside his theological writing on the nature of devotional attention, I will argue that the poetic practice Vedāntadeśika learns by reading Kālidāsa activates the same mental faculty involved in bhakti-yoga, or the devotional contemplation of god. This strain of Vedāntadeśika’s poetry thus amounts to a performance of the devotional practice he describes in his philosophical writings. (shrink)

This book takes a fascinating look at the linguistic, psychological, and anthropological implications of Sue Savage-Rumbaugh's work with Kanzi--a bonobo who has achieved stunning cognitive and linguistic skills.

The role of Indian ethos in management practices is explored by several management scholars and practitioners. Professor Sitangshu Kumar Chakraborty (popularly known as Professor S. K. Chakraborty, hereinafter referred to as SKC in this article) is one of the pioneering scholars of human value-oriented management practices and has made significant contributions in linking the management knowledge and practices to classical Indian ethos and Vedantic wisdom. In today’s technologically advanced and economically fast-paced world, there is a rising concern about falling human (...) values in work and in personal life, which must be addressed to understand the deeper meaning of work and a higher purpose in life. SKC’s innovative approaches to human values in management education for practising managers are quite significant in this regard. This article is a sincere attempt to explore and synthesize the contributions of SKC to the human value-oriented management that evolved around the fundamental pillars of classical Indian ethos and Vedantic wisdom and the implication of those values for today’s managers to realign their managerial practices. This article is based on a bibliometric analysis of published articles drawn from secondary sources and is a tribute to the life and legacy of SKC on human value-based management. (shrink)

Projects may exist in many forms, depending on the purpose and organisational context. Irrespective of the type and nature, however, the effective management of any project requires a high degree of commitment by the project members to the accomplishment of project objectives. The high degree of reliance on external international funding makes project management in non-profit organisations of developing societies a challenging task. The marriage of two entirely different sets of values and philosophical orientations creates an invisible tensile force, impacting (...) the different stages of the project life cycle. The present paper, which is exploratory in nature, broadly aims to study the impact of sponsors’ values on the different project-management activities, including both the planning and the implementation stages of the project. The research involves conceptualisation of the different significant issues in effective project management. The analysis of the identified issues is first made on the basis of the experience of the selected stakeholders in Tanzanian non-profit organisations. The analysis is further linked to the selected context-specific contemporary philosophical thoughts affecting the socio-cultural values in the region. The analysis shows that the variation in the values of project owners and stakeholders is one of the major challenges in the effective implementation of a project in the given context. The study is novel in its approach and raises some fundamental issues arising due to the different philosophical orientations and value-sets of the different partner-project organisations. It is expected that the study will stimulate further academic debate on the broader theme of ‘values, philosophy and project management’. The study is also likely to contribute to knowledge development in the subject area of management in general and practical management philosophy in particular. (shrink)

First published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

_Wittgenstein's Remarks on the Foundations of AI_ is a valuable contribution to the study of Wittgenstein's theories and his controversial attack on artifical intelligence, which successfully crosses a number of disciplines, including philosophy, psychology, logic, artificial intelligence and cognitive science, to provide a stimulating and searching analysis.

_Wittgenstein's Remarks on the Foundations of AI_ is a valuable contribution to the study of Wittgenstein's theories and his controversial attack on artifical intelligence, which successfully crosses a number of disciplines, including philosophy, psychology, logic, artificial intelligence and cognitive science, to provide a stimulating and searching analysis.

In this paper, we show that the Kirchhoff equations are derived from the Schrödinger equation by assuming the wave function to be a polynomial like solution. These Kirchhoff equations describe the evolution of n point vortices in hydrodynamics. In two dimensions, Kirchhoff equations are used to demonstrate the solution to single particle Laughlin wave function as complex Hermite polynomials. We also show that the equation for optical vortices, a two dimentional system, is derived from Kirchhoff equation by using paraxial wave (...) approximation. These Kirchhoff equations satisfy a Poisson bracket relationship in phase space which is identical to the Heisenberg uncertainty relationship. Therefore, we conclude that being classical equations, the Kirchhoff equations, describe both a particle and a wave nature of single particle quantum mechanics in two dimensions. (shrink)

Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) legislation changed in 2021; persons without a reasonably foreseeable natural death (RFND) could now be eligible for MAID and would have to wait at least 90 days before their intervention. This legislative change caused a new ethically complex question to arise, which we explore in this commentary, namely: Where should individuals without a RFND wait (for 90 days) in a publicly funded health system?

An increasing number of large corporations find themselves caught between two seemingly contradictory goals: satisfying investors’ expectations for progressive earnings’ growth and the stakeholders’ growing demand for ethical conduct. There is an increasing realization across geographies concerning the growing relevance of resolving this issue. The present article is a tool kit for business organizations who want to become ethically fit. The article exhibits the dilemma faced by the corporate world regarding embracing ethics in business. It attempts to establish with the (...) help of some empirical findings that on a broader canvas ethical conduct is contributory towards the bottom line growth. It also suggests that to evaluate the performance of a business the frame of reference has to be changed. Further, it offers tangible suggestions as to what business corporations ought to do in order to get ethically fit. (shrink)

In recent years we have seen a dramatic shift, in several different areas of communication studies, from an information-theoretic to a dynamic systems paradigm. In an information processing system, communication, whether between cells, mammals, apes, or humans, is said to occur when one organism encodes information into a signal that is transmitted to another organism that decodes the signal. In a dynamic system, all of the elements are continuously interacting with and changing in respect to one another, and an aggregate (...) pattern emerges from this mutual co-action. Whereas the information-processing paradigm looks at communication as a linear, binary sequence of events, the dynamic systems paradigm looks at the relation between behaviors and how the whole configuration changes over time. One of the most dramatic examples of the significance of shifting from an information processing to a dynamic systems paradigm can be found in the debate over the interpretation of recent advances in ape language research (ALR). To some extent, many of the early ALR studies reinforced the stereotype that animal communication is functional and stimulus bound, precisely because they were based on an information-processing paradigm that promoted a static model of communicative development. But Savage-Rumbaugh's recent results with bonobos has introduced an entirely new dimension into this debate. Shifting the terms of the discussion from an information-processing to a dynamic systems paradigm not only highlights the striking differences between Savage-Rumbaugh's research and earlier ALR studies, but further, it sheds illuminating light on the factors that underpin the development of communication skills in great apes and humans, and the relationship between communicative development and the development of language. Key Words: apes; ape language research (ALR); brain development; co-regulation; communication; dynamic systems; language development; symbols. (shrink)

A layman's guide to the mechanics of Gödel's proof together with a lucid discussion of the issues which it raises. Includes an essay discussing the significance of Gödel's work in the light of Wittgenstein's criticisms.

Innovation has been widely regarded as a powerful tool for stimulating economic growth and changing the quality of human life since the beginning of time. Innovation will continue to remain a key driving force for sustainability and growth in the current economic global slowdown. At present there are hardly any studies that show why innovation is successful at some organizations, and yet fails to achieve the desired results at others. The authors investigate the role of “core values and beliefs” of (...) leading innovative companies in India and abroad on how they go about building a unique innovation culture which ensures their continuous growth even in troubled times. (shrink)

A layman's guide to the mechanics of Gödel's proof together with a lucid discussion of the issues which it raises. Includes an essay discussing the significance of Gödel's work in the light of Wittgenstein's criticisms.