Let X be a Polish space and a separable compact subset of the first Baire class on X. For every sequence dense in , the descriptive set-theoretic properties of the set are analyzed. It is shown that if is not first countable, then is -complete. This can also happen even if is a pre-metric compactum of degree at most two, in the sense of S. Todorčević. However, if is of degree exactly two, then is always Borel. A deep result of (...) G. Debs implies that contains a Borel cofinal set and this gives a tree-representation of . We show that classical ordinal assignments of Baire-1 functions are actually -ranks on . We also provide an example of a Ramsey-null subset A of for which there does not exist a Borel set BA such that the difference BA is Ramsey-null. (shrink)

Journal of Human Values, Volume 28, Issue 3, Page 181-199, September 2022. The study addresses the challenging crisis of sustainable consumption. It explores the philosophy of Samkhya, which is based on nature and spirit, also found in Vedantic knowledge, and synthesizes it with the knowledge of spiritual well-being found in modern literature to conceptualize the roles of the direct, mediating and moderated mediation relationships of different Vedantic personality types, spiritual well-being and family structure with consciousness for sustainable consumption and its (...) three dimensions of environment, society and economy. Based on the conceptualized roles, different models have been proposed. (shrink)

On the life and philosophy of Śaṅkarācārya.

In this article, I discuss cross-border egg provision by young South African women as a form of traveling biolabor that is critically about embodiment, and aspirations for mobility and cosmopolitanism. The frame of biolabor challenges the frames of altruism/commodification, and choice/coercion, and instead highlights the desires of egg providers, fundamental to the creation and maintenance of the global fertility market. When biolabor crosses borders as traveling biolabor, the analysis can focus on the specificities of inequalities embedded within such reproductive mobility. (...) Traveling or mobility is often a privileged decision and connotes freedom and cultural capital. Yet, when applied to young white egg providers from South Africa, this traveling biolabor relies on a particular kind of biopolitics wherein the reproductive potential of ova/egg is fundamental in facilitating women’s cross-border mobility. I divide the findings sections into three key themes—“cosmopolitan competency,” “alternatives to maternity,” and “productive pain”—to argue that, on the one hand, from recruitment of traveling egg providers to their management, this biolabor is built on the young women’s aspirations for cosmopolitanism. Traveling biolabor becomes a way to escape the normative expectations of their families and the national project of the volksmoeder. On the other hand, the pursuit of these aspirations is critically contingent on management successfully reframing the embodied pain of egg provision as well as the biolaborer’s own maternity. Laborers’ desires and management disciplining tactics converge to sustain the global fertility market. (shrink)

Abstract:Across public and intellectual audiences, postcolonial feminism is often understood to only apply to the “post-colony”. This assumption fails to capture the significant intellectual contributions of postcolonial feminist theory, whilst relegating postcolonial feminist scholars' insights to the margins of the academy and social theory. This move reproduces temporal and geographic logics that presume imperialism “happened” only in the past (and is complete/over) and only in territories counted as the properties of (former) empires (i.e. in the global South and not the (...) global North). In this essay, we write against this conceptualization by highlighting some vital interventions of postcolonial feminist theory and demonstrating how the books under review build new theoretical pathways. We argue for the contemporary relevance of postcolonial feminism as a diverse body of theory offering analytical insights that extend beyond ‘the postcolony’ or a singular application to ‘women's lives’. In particular, we chart the significance of postcolonial feminisms as a lens through which we might ‘unsettle the global south’. Engaging recent calls for critical attention to the global South as a site of theory (rather than merely data extraction), we insist upon dislocating ‘the south’ from an imposed geographic fixity, which too often simply reproduces place-based and racialized hierarchies of ‘civility’ or modernity inherited from colonial science. Postcolonial feminist theory suggests we might instead view ‘south’ as a flexible and mobile marker that draws our gaze to the operation of imperial power, manifest in complex inequalities articulated at local and global scales. In this sense, we argue that ‘theorizing from the south’ requires both a divestment from the usual business of intellectual extraction that positions the global South as source of unprocessed data or ethnographic case study, and a kind of counter-mapping that centralizes the insights and theories that emerge from positions of struggle and marginality. Three themes organize our analysis of the monographs reviewed here and construct our argument about the role of postcolonial feminism in ‘unsettling’ imperial geographic imaginaries that haunt invocations of ‘the global south’. These theories include: (1) the central role of gender and sexuality in racialized imperialist projects; (2) liberal modernity and colonial definitions of ‘the human’; and (3) alternative approaches to capitalism that highlight hegemonic white property regimes. (shrink)

Première publication et commentaire historique de l'inscription honorifique d'une base de statue découverte dans la ville antique d'Europos (Macédoine). L'auteur propose d'identifier le légat de Marc-Antoine honoré ici, M. Insteius L.f., connu jusqu'alors uniquement par des sources littéraires, avec l'officier anonyme du passage d'Appien (BC V 75, 320), qui dirigea l'expédition lancée par Antoine entre 39 et 38 av. J.-C. contre les Dardaniens. Cette expédition fut jugée utile pour reprendre le contrôle sur la province, contrôle qui avait vraisemblablement été ébranlé (...) après la bataille de Philippes ; elle est en rapport avec l'importance de la région pour la sécurité de la province de Macédoine et la stratégie d'Antoine dans la péninsule balkanique. (shrink)

The research presented in this paper was motivated by our aim to study a problem due to J. Bourgain [3]. The problem in question concerns the uniform boundedness of the classical separation rank of the elements of a separable compact set of the first Baire class. In the sequel we shall refer to these sets (separable or non-separable) as Rosenthal compacta and we shall denote by ∝(f) the separation rank of a real-valued functionfinB1(X), withXa Polish space. Notice that in [3], (...) Bourgain has provided a positive answer to this problem in the case ofKsatisfyingwithXa compact metric space. The key ingredient in Bourgain's approach is that whenever a sequence of continuous functions pointwise converges to a functionf, then the possible discontinuities of the limit function reflect a local ℓ1-structure to the sequence (fn)n. More precisely the complexity of this ℓ1-structure increases as the complexity of the discontinuities offdoes. This fruitful idea was extensively studied by several authors (c.f. [5], [7], [8]) and for an exposition of the related results we refer to [1]. It is worth mentioning that A.S. Kechris and A. Louveau have invented the rank rND(f) which permits the link between thec0-structure of a sequence (fn)nof uniformly bounded continuous functions and the discontinuities of its pointwise limit. Rosenthal'sc0-theorem [11] and thec0-index theorem [2] are consequences of this interaction.Passing to the case where either (fn)nare not continuous orXis a non-compact Polish space, this nice interaction is completely lost. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:This Birth and ThatSurrogacy and Stratified Motherhood in IndiaAmrita PandeIn 2006, i came across a short newspaper article about the emergence of a new industry in India—the industry of paid birth or commercial surrogacy. People from all over the world could now hire Indian women to give birth to babies for them, for a fraction of the cost of surrogacy elsewhere and with no government regulations. After some digging (...) around, I quickly realized that there was scarcely any objective, academic research about this new industry, and so began my ethnographic journey to the first clinic in not just India but in fact in the entire Global South to have a flourishing trade in both national and transnational surrogacy.1Academic inquiry into surrogacy arrangements is adequately interdisciplinary and has generated feminist, ethical, legal, and social debates for more than three decades (see, for example, Andrews 1987; Anderson 1990; Bailey 2011; Brennan and Noggle 1997; Hochschild 2012; Markens 2007; Oliver 1989; Ragoné 1994; Pande 2011; and Teman 2010). While defenders of surrogacy advocate it as a manifestation of women’s freedom and choice, much of the scholarship has displayed intense anxiety about this practice (Corea 1986; Dworkin 1983; Harding 1991; Neuhaus 1988; Raymond 1993; Roberts 1998b; and Rothman 1988). One view is that surrogacy reduces women to a mere breeder class, to the class of prostitutes, and another is that it is just another form of baby selling. Others consider the development of such reproductive technologies as a form of class and gender-based exploitation of women’s bodies. Two additional trends in this scholarship are worth emphasizing. First, [End Page 50] much of the debating takes place in abstraction and is rarely based on the actual experience of surrogates.2 Second,much of this work is about surrogacy in the Global North. This is not altogether surprising, since commercial surrogacy is a very recent phenomenon outside of the Global North.In this essay, I address these two gaps in the literature by analyzing the birthing narratives of surrogates in a clinic in India. As the surrogates compare their experiences of giving birth as a surrogate mother to their previous pregnancies, they underscore the paradox of an industry based on pro-natal technology in an otherwise anti-natal state. As importantly, these narratives are a clear manifestation of a global trend of “stratified motherhood”—“the hierarchical organization of reproductive fecundity and birth experiences that supports and rewards the maternity of some women while despising or outlawing the mother-work of others” (Rapp 2001, 469).Surrogacy in IndiaThe moral and ethical ambiguity surrounding surrogacy has made many countries, including China, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, and some U.S. states ban surrogacy altogether. Some countries have imposed partial bans, for instance Australia (Victoria), Brazil, Hong Kong, Hungary, Israel, South Africa, and the UK. Canada, Greece, South Africa, Israel, and the UK permit gestational surrogacy, subject to regulations. Then there are other countries with no regulations at all, such as Belgium, Finland, and India (Markens 2007; Teman 2010). Apart from the recent spurt of surrogacy in India, commercial surrogacy is most prevalent in California, USA, and Israel, where surrogacy is tightly controlled by the state and restricted to Israeli citizens. The Indian structure is closer to the liberal market model of surrogacy in California, where surrogacy births are primarily managed by private, commercial agencies that screen, match, and regulate agreements according to their own criteria (Pande 2009).India is not the only country to experience a rise in transnational surrogacy. Couples from countries such as the UK, Japan, Australia, and Kuwait, where surrogacy is either illegal or restricted, have hired surrogates in the United States to bear babies for them. However, while the total cost of such transnational packages is roughly between $100,000 and $120,000, in India the package costs one-third of that amount. Another factor that explains the popularity of India as a destination for transnational surrogacy is the informality of the market. Although commercial surrogacy is not illegal in India in 2002, currently there are no laws regulating surrogacy in clinics. Fertility clinics... (shrink)

The Buddhist philosophy of causality is primarily a theory (naya) of the human world. Its methodology, however, is objective and critical. It rejects the weight of mere authority or tradition, relies upon experience and reason, and emphasizes the critical examination and verification of all opinions. Although the Buddhist conception of knowledge and truth has a strong empirical and pragmatic bias (cf. Nyāya‐bindu 1.1), its conception of experience does not exclude introspection, rational intuition or mystical intuition (cf. Nyāya‐bindu 1.7–11). Although its (...) conception of reason creates a logical gulf between reason and experience, the gulf is bridged by a transcendental illusion (avidyā). Its employment of reason is highly analytical and it seeks to discover the ultimate elements constituting the structures of objects and experience. The constituent elements as the locus of causation are regarded as more real than their composite structures – dharma, dhātu or kṣana as contrasted with saṅghāta or santāna. At the same time, it raises dialectical questions and seriously considers the possibility of the empirical world being merely a working illusion. It discounts the apparent stability of objects, stressing their transience, finally defined as momentariness (see, for example, Ratnakīrti's Kṣaṇa‐bhaṅgasiddhi). It rejects the category of substance for that of process. Causality is thus regarded not as a dynamic interaction between substances, but as a functional, many‐one relationship of order characterized by invariance and uniformity within any given type of process. (shrink)

Purpose New media is reshaping mediated communication. This paper aims to examine whether the online community is concerned about ethical issues in citizen journalism. Design/methodology/approach The study uses critical thematic analyses to examine 1,402 comments posted in response to two YouTube videos of teenage girl molestation in India. This method was appropriate, as it will show how public reacts to information disseminated by common citizens and also show whether ethics are related to citizen journalism. Findings Results show that although some (...) viewers questioned the cameraperson’s and the passerby’s morality, several supportive comments praised the cameraperson’s presence of mind and courage. Furthermore, it shows that while some viewers vilified the victim, others advocated a more prudent response. This shows ambiguity regarding ethics in cyberspace. The mixed reactions present strong evidence to challenge the idealistic and exceedingly rational original notion of the public sphere as homogenous or integrated on issues of public concern. Instead, result exhibits an emergence of pluralistic, intersecting and contending publics that are created by new communication technologies like the internet. Research limitations/implications The study was specific to a particular context thereby lacking generalizability. However, it implies further investigation of social agency and the underlying politics in the move from local to global. Originality/value These findings necessitate a reconceptualization of cyberspace ethics to accommodate the new publics that have materialized from new media technologies. (shrink)

On the ultimate reality of Hindu philosophy.

In this study I highlight the spatial exclusions that migrant domestic workers experience in Lebanon. I argue that migrant domestic workers constantly challenge such spatial exclusions by using the exact spaces that they are excluded from as the bases for a meso-level of resistances—strategic acts that cannot be classified as either private and individual or as organized collective action. I highlight three kinds of such resistive activities: the strategic dyads forged across balconies by the most restricted live-in workers, the small (...) collectives formed outside ethnic churches by other live-in workers, and much larger worker collectives in rental apartments occupied by illegal freelancers and runaways. By analyzing these spaces as strategic instances of workers’ collectives, I question the portrayal of MDWs in the Arab world as ultimate and defeated victims of abuse. But the continuum of resistive activities undertaken by MDWs in Lebanon also challenges the dichotomies often constructed between public and private forms of organization and resistances. This meso-level of resistance becomes particularly significant in a country like Lebanon, where MDWs are forbidden from forming or joining formal unions, and becomes critical for workers from many countries in Africa and South Asia who, unlike the larger Filipina community, have little access to formal support systems like consulates and embassies. (shrink)

The two volumes together may be described as search for the original ideational foundations of Indian Culture. In one way this work recalls the tradition of Coomaraswamy but seeks to join it to the mainstream of critical history. It argues that the living continuity of Indian Culture is rooted in a unique spiritual vision and social experience. Indian Culture is neither the result of merely accidental happenings through the centuries, nor a mere palimpsest of migrations and invasions. It is, in (...) its essence, a development of foundational ideas constituting a creative matrix. Behind its changing historical forms lies a deep and persistent source of creativity which is spiritual in character. The Present volume I deals with the spiritual vision and symbolic forms. Here is has been upheld that the spiritual vision of India had two original aspects, the integral or synoptic vision of the Vedas, and the Sramanic vision of Transcendence. Purnata and Sunyata constituted the two poles round which Indian spirituality revolved. The author not only elucidates this bipolar matrix of Indian spirituality revolved. The author not only elucidates this bipolar matrix of Indian spiritual praxis or sadhana, but also traces its intricate ancient history. He goes on to trace the great symbolic forms-language, myth, science, literature and art-in which this basic vision expressed itself. In all these areas he brings out the basic general principles expressive of inner consciousness rather than present a mere selection of well-known details. (shrink)

On Bhāratīkr̥shṇatīrtha, 1884-1960, religious leader and exponent of the Advaita school in Hindu philosophy.

This paper takes an embodied and extended cognition perspective to ER integration – a cognitive process through which a learner integrates external representations in a domain, with her internal model, as she interacts with, uses, understands and transforms between those ERs. In the paper, I argue for a theoretical as well as empirical shift in future investigations of ER integration, by proposing a model of cognitive mechanisms underlying the process, based on recent advances in extended and embodied cognition. I present (...) this new model in contrast to the still dominant classical cognitivist approaches to ER integration, and the educational technology intervention designs such approaches inspire. I then exemplify this distinction between the information processing model and the new model through a case of arithmetic problem solving. Corroborative neuroscience evidence presented in relation to this case provides empirical support for the new model by showing how bodily actions are critical to ER integration and learning. Finally, as educational implications of the new model, I demonstrate the need for: re-viewing the development of ER integration and expertise as fine-tuning of the learner's action or sensorimotor system, and a shift of focus in new-media intervention design principles based on this newer understanding of ER integration in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. (shrink)

In this ethnography of Bangladeshi men living and working in South Africa, I draw on the intersection of three sets of literatures—masculinities studies, mobility studies, and the emerging body of work on migrant masculinities— to argue that migrant mobility shapes and is shaped by relational performances of racialized masculinities. I analyze three particular moments of such “mobile masculinities.” The first is in the home country wherein migration is seen as a mandatory rite of passage into manhood. The second moment is (...) in transit, where the relational masculinity of migrant men and “traffickers” is performed and made. The final moment is in South Africa, wherein we observe two contrasting forms of masculinities: hyper masculinity and Ummah masculinity. Both kinds of masculinity in the final moment are attempts by the migrants to recuperate masculinity within a situation of extreme powerlessness. This article invokes the need for mobility research within gender studies, and an attention to a complex, processual construction of identities wherein gender, race, and other differences define the identities of migrants but also the discourses and narratives of masculinities. (shrink)

Fear of cancer is mostly related to cancer recurrence, metastasis, additional cancer, and diagnostic tests. Its legacy as a lethal disease has raised fear of approaching death. Currently, cancer’s total suffering and the worsening phenomena have raised fear, especially among female patients. Family caregivers (FCGs) who are responsible for the day-to-day cancer care at home need to help the patients deal with this fear frequently. Due to the limited care competencies, they need supportive care from healthcare professionals in cancer fear (...) management. This study aims to assess how types of demanded healthcare information affect the FCG’s role in reducing the fear of female cancer patients. The mindsponge theory was used in conceptual development and interpretation. Bayesian Mindsponge Framework (BMF) analytics were used for statistical analysis on a dataset of 48 spouses (husbands) and 12 other family members in five congested communities of Surabaya, Indonesia. Results showed that among the six types of healthcare information, FCGs with higher demand on cancer-specific information and information on cancer physical needs were more likely to need support in reducing the fear of female cancer patients. Meanwhile, FCGs with a higher demand for information on support services were less likely to need support to reduce cancer patients’ fear. Other types of healthcare information have ambiguous effects on the need for support in reducing cancer-induced fear. This study reveals that the demanded cancer-specific information, e.g., cancer’s prognosis or likely outcome and information on cancer physical needs, need to be met in priority to assist FCG’s role in cancer fear management. (shrink)

Malnutrition among children is prevalent in almost all the states in India. This study assesses the extent and causes of malnutrition in two eastern Indian states with similar climates, namely West Bengal and Assam, using data from the National Family Health Survey 1998s educational status, working status of the mother, mother’s age at delivery of the children, source of drinking water, toilet facilities and standard of living of the household. Logistic regression was carried out separately for each of the three (...) indices on the explanatory variables for both the states. It was found that not all variables are equally important in determining whether a baby is underweight, or suffering from acute or chronic malnutrition. Also, the importance of variables is not the same in the two states. It was observed that the coefficients associated with the variables in determining weight-for-height are not significant compared with those for weight-for-age and height-for-age. (shrink)

Study on Islamic religious life and Islamic ethics in view of various astonishing Islamic stories.

Advices for young Muslims girls for their conduct of life.

Govind Chandra Pande’s interest ranged over a wide area. His early works were on Buddhism, and the very first of his publications established a secure reputation for him as a leading scholar of Buddhism.1 Other works on Buddhism and other śramaṇa traditions followed to reinforce his reputation.2 It is therefore not surprising that, to many, this still remains his primary identity. By training and profession he was a historian. And he encouraged some of his early research scholars to undertake (...) research in one area that turned out in many respects to be breaking new ground. The area we are referring to is the socioeconomic history of early India.3 It has now become a very coveted field. During the early phase of his .. (shrink)