The political scene behind Japan's legislation in 2000 was uneasy and flurried. The ascent to political power by Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori following the sudden death of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, the shift in political framework caused by the separation of the Liberal Party from the coalition government, and the general election came one after the other in a series of restless succession.

This paper investigates the campaign waged by Islamic scholars affiliating to the Shādhiliyya-Jazūliyya Sufi order among tribal people in the mountain region of Northern Morocco in the sixteenth century. It examines these scholars’ campaign against bidʿa in the mountains, focusing on their attacks against traditional practices related to marriage and conjugal life that they considered religiously and morally aberrant. The primary source discussed here is a guidebook for marriage, titled Etiquette of Husband and Wife, containing diverse legal doctrines, fatwās, anecdotes, (...) and other accounts. Based on this document, we examine these scholars’ ideological background, the methods they used, and the kinds of practices they censured. They intended to enhance strict sexual segregation by using sufi masters’ religious authority and dhikr to conquer the resistance of the tribal people who had allowed men and women to mix each other publicly. They also demanded a hierarchical structure of religious education, with the family as the base for the Islamization of juridical norms in tribal society. This paper shows that the people did not strictly follow the scholars’ dictates because these restrictions were incompatible with their way of life in this region. It is probable that the leaders of the campaign afforded to the cause of the Saʿdids because they expected that their activity would proceed better under a new regime with more effective governance and control over society. (shrink)

Orthologic is non-classical logic and has been studied as a part of quantumlogic. OL is based on an ortholattice and is also called minimal quantum logic. Sequent calculus is used as a tool for proof in logic and has been examinedfor several decades. Although there are many studies on sequent calculus forOL, these sequent calculi have some problems. In particular, they do not includeimplication connective and they are mostly incompatible with the cut-eliminationtheorem. In this paper, we introduce new labeled sequent (...) calculus called LGOI, and show that this sequent calculus solve the above problems. It is alreadyknown that OL is decidable. We prove that decidability is preserved when theimplication connective is added to OL. (shrink)

In this study, new sequent calculi for a minimal quantum logic ) are discussed that involve an implication. The sequent calculus \ for \ was established by Nishimura, and it is complete with respect to ortho-models. As \ does not contain implications, this study adopts the strict implication and constructs two new sequent calculi \ and \ as the expansions of \. Both \ and \ are complete with respect to the O-models. In this study, the completeness and decidability theorems (...) for these new systems are proven. Furthermore, some details pertaining to new rules and the strict implication are discussed. (shrink)

We develop a semiotic scheme of time, in which time precipitates from the repeated succession of punctuating the progressive tense by the perfect tense. The underlying principle is communication among local participants. Time can thus be seen as a meaning-making, semiotic system in which different time codes are delineated, each having its own grammar and timekeeping. The four time codes discussed are the following: the subjective time having tense, the objective time without tense, the static time without timekeeping, and the (...) inter-subjective time of the E-series. Living organisms adopt a time code called the E-series, which emerges through the local synchronization among organisms or parts of organisms. The inter-subjective time is a new theoretical dimension resulting from the time-aligning activities of interacting agents. Such synchronization in natural settings consists of incessant mutual corrections and adjustments to one’s own punctuation, which is then constantly updated. Unlike the third-person observer keeping the objective time while sitting outside a clock, the second-person negotiators participate in forming the E-series time by punctuating and updating the interface through which different tenses meet at the moment of “now.” Although physics allows physicists to be the only interpreters, the semiotic perspective upends the physical perspective by letting local participants be involved in the interpretation of their mutual negotiations to precipitate that which is called time. (shrink)

Anticipatory acts or predictive behavior are prerequisites for living organisms to sustain their survival when escaping from a predator, catching prey, or schooling. For example, catching prey requires that the predator perform some procedures that are equivalent to estimating the directional movement of the prey, its speed and its distance relative to the predator. Underlying these procedures is time experience, which does not adhere to man-made mechanical clocks. Living organisms keep time based on the local activities of each participant and (...) form ecological clocks together. The timekeeping of ecological clocks has been called E-series time, which is interactive in character and consists of mutual alignment of timing that is co-adjusted to each other’s movements and rhythms. A main objective of our current work is to illustrate how E-series time is used for flows of anticipatory acts. To explain such predictive moves and their efforts based on how the perspective of the immediate future affects the present, we resort to the organismic activity of revising the preceding acts in retrospect and semiotic scaffolding that extends beyond simple linear causality. Special attention is paid to the construction of the notion of retrocausal scaffolding, which is a series of dialogical punctuations or mutual coordination of rhythms for the joint production of the present moment of now. Retrocausal scaffolding is synonymous with negotiated anticipation, which is a semiotic/communicative account of revising the preceding acts in the present moment. (shrink)

Timing adjustment is an important ability for living organisms. Wild animals need to act at the right moment to catch prey or escape a predator. Land plants, although limited in their movement, need to decide the right time to grow and bloom. Humans also need to decide the right moment for social actions. Although scientists can pinpoint the timing of such behaviors by observation, we know extremely little about how living organisms as actors or players decide when to act – (...) such as the exact moment to dash or pounce. The time measurements of an outsider-observer and the insider-participants are utterly different. We explain how such essential operations of timing adjustment and temporal spanning, both of which constitute a single regulated set, can be carried out among organisms. For this purpose, we have to reexamine the ordinary conception of time. Our specific explanatory tools include the natural movement known as the upbeat (anacrusis) in music, a rhythmic push for the downbeat that follows, which predicts future moves as an anticipatory lead-in. The scheme is situated in and is the extension of our formulation of E-series time, i.e., timing co-adjusted through interaction, which is derived from the semiotic/communicative perspectives. We thereby demonstrate that a prediction-based timing system is not mechanical but communicative and entails meanings for future anticipation. (shrink)