Purpose The manner in which people, businesses and governments perform is changing because of the spread of technology. Digitalization of governments can be considered a necessity as we are now entering the era of the Internet-of-Things. The advantages and disadvantages of electronic governments have been examined in several research studies. This study aims to examine the attitudes of decision-makers towards e-government. The research aims are as follows: to determine the problems related with e-government usage, to establish the factors which decrease (...) the usage of e-government services and to propose recommendations for the effective application of e-government practices. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative research has been used for the study. Participants were chosen by the snowball sampling method, and face-to-face in-depth interviews were conducted with all decision-makers. In-depth interviews are more efficient and enable the acquisition of better qualitative information, in-depth knowledge and statistics, as the distance between the interviewer and interviewee is reduced. Questions asked can be categorized under two sections, where the questions in the first section are related to the decision-maker’s management style/managerial proposition, and in the second section, technological questions are asked in terms of the preferred communication method and the decision-makers’ attitudes towards e-government practices. Findings Decision-makers perceive electronic government to be important, while the level of importance is observed to be different among the decision-makers. Chronic problems exist in many countries, such as nepotism, where the decision-makers have conflicting arguments about e-government and the resulting effect on nepotism. Furthermore, the study also indicates that decision-makers are aware of the importance of mobile government, although they acknowledge that more time is required, as their country is still developing. Electronic voting is also perceived to be important, although the decision-makers believe that security and privacy issues need to be solved before related projects can be initiated. Originality/value This research can be a benchmark study for the decision-makers of small island developing states by means of e-government. The impediments preventing the effective application of e-government practices are also discussed in the study. This study will be useful to highlight the triggers and obstacles for e-government development in the context of a developing country. Internet penetration has increased significantly since the 2000s, and therefore, decision-makers need to consider the shift in citizens’ behaviour, such as the high usage of smartphones and the emergence of the Internet-of-Things. (shrink)

BackgroundInformation and communication technology solutions have the potential to support active and healthy aging and improve monitoring and treatment outcomes. To make such solutions acceptable, all stakeholders must be involved in the requirements elicitation process. Due to the COVID-19 situation, alternative approaches to commonly used face-to-face methods must often be used. One aim of the current article is to share a unique experience from the Pharaon project where due to the COVID-19 outbreak alternative elicitation methods were used. In addition, an (...) overview of common functional, quality, and emotional goals identified by six pilot sites is presented to complement the knowledge about the needs of older adults.MethodsOriginally planned face-to-face co-creation seminars were impossible to carry out, and all pilot sites chose alternative requirements elicitation methods that were most suitable in their situation. The elicited requirements were presented in the form of goal models. In one summary goal model, we provide an overview of common functional, quality, and emotional goals.ResultsDifferent elicitation methods were combined based on the digital literacy of the target group and their access to digital tools. Methods applied without digital technologies were phone interviews, reviews of literature and previous projects, while by means of digital technologies online interviews, online questionnaires, and virtual co-creation seminars were conducted. The combination of the methods allowed to involve all planned stakeholders. Virtual and semi-virtual co-creation seminars created collaborative environment comparable to face-to-face situations, while online participation helped to save the time of the participants. The most prevalent functional goals elicited were “Monitor health,” “Receive advice,” “Receive information.” “Easy to use/comfortable,” “personalized/tailored,” “automatic/smart” were identified as most prevalent quality goals. Most frequently occurring emotional goals were “involved,” “empowered,” and “informed.”ConclusionThere are alternative methods to face-to-face co-creation seminars, which effectively involve older adults and other stakeholders in the requirements elicitation process. Despite the used elicitation method, the requirements can be easily transformed into goal models to present the results in a uniform way. The common requirements across different pilots provided a strong foundation for representing detailed requirements and input for further software development processes. (shrink)

Cet ouvrage donne une place importante à l'idée de la justice selon deux philosophes : selon la théorie de Thomas Hobbes elle est prise dans un cercle entre la loi, le souverain et la violence, tandis que pour Jacques Derrida, elle ne doit pas être limitée à la loi. L'intention de l'auteure, n'est pas d'apporter une nouvelle théorie, mais de montrer qu'une idée philosophique peut avoir une influence en politique ou en droit selon les propositions des Critical Legal Studies.

İran’ın kuzeybatısında İslam coğrafya âlimlerinin Cibâl olarak tavsif ettikleri bölgede Sâsânîler döneminde kurulan Kazvin, İslâm orduları tarafından bölgede ele geçirilen ilk İran şehirlerinden biri olmuştur. Kuruluşundan itibaren Deylem cihetine yönelik saldırılarda askerî karargâh amaçlı kullanılan kent, İslâm fetihleriyle de bu hüviyetini korumuştur. Halkın İslâm’ı benimsemesinin zamanı ve niteliği hususunda ihtilaflar olmakla birlikte Kazvin'de kısa süre içinde İslâmlaşma tamamlanmıştı. Garnizon kent olmasından kaynaklı iskân ettirilen Arap askerler, diğer beldelerden sınıra cihada gelen Müslümanlar, âlimler ve şehre ayrı imtiyazlarda bulunan halifeler sebebiyle şehir (...) kısa süre içinde fizikî ve kültürel olarak İslâm şehrine dönüşmüştür. Çalışmamızda örnekleriyle somutlaştıracağımız bu unsurlardan ilk olarak Kazvin fatihi Berâ b. Âzib tarafından şehre yerleştirilen Arap askerlerinden aralarında âlim ve ravilerin de bulunduğu kimselerin askerî faaliyetler dışında şehrin İslâm kültür ve medeniyetine katkılarından bahsedeceğiz. Keza İslâm büyükleri ve halifeler tarafından sınırda cihat etmenin faziletine dair sözleri ile teşvik edilen gönüllü askerleri ve gerek evlerinde gerekse camilerde ilim faaliyetlerini sürdüren âlimleri de bu minvalde zikredeceğiz. Son olarak bu askerler için kale, sûr ve şehrin sınıra yakın bölgelerinde inşa edilen mahalleler ile fiziki ortamı sağlayan, şehirde sürekli cihat ortamı olması hasebiyle halkı vergilerden muaf tutan ve vakıflarla malî destekte bulunan halifeleri ve sair idarî amillleri de kentin İslamlaşmasındaki diğer unsurlar arasında ele alacağız. (shrink)

“Dil politik bir zorunluluk olmanın yanı sıra, iletişim boyutunda bir oluş biçimi olarak estetik bir tutum da varlığa getirir. Bir şeye, dışarıda duran bir şeye gönderme yapma, gönderenin o şeyle olan tutum alışını gösterir. Ağaç ormanda bir anlama bürünürken, bir park alanında ya da yol kenarında başka bir anlama bürünür. Ağaç her zaman bir ağaç değildir; çünkü o ağaç olmaklığını benden bağımsız olarak almış olmasına rağmen, orada bir varlık olarak benim ifade etme biçimime bağlı olarak farklı anlamlara açıktır. Yine de (...) benim olan ağaç ile benim varlığıma gereksinim duymayan aynı ağaç, benim ağaç dediğim şeyle aynı değildir. “ağaç hakkında konuşuyorum,” bir betimleme sunmaz, dahası olmayan ağaç üzerinden bir ağaç var eder. Bu bir anlamada “o bir balık değil, balık resmidir,” türü bir yargıya doğru ilerler.” Bu örnek aslında felsefenin dilsel bir etkinlik olan nitel ya da nicel belirleniminin bize sunduğu ontolojiden bağımsız bir düşünüm olamayacağını açıklar mahiyettedir. (shrink)

Klasik tefsir merviyatı konulu kaynaklarda En‘âm sûresinin Mekke döneminin sonlarında tek seferde topluca nazil olduğu rivayet edilmektedir. Bununla birlikte sûrenin bazı âyetlerinin farklı zamanlarda indiğine işaret eden sebeb-i nüzul rivayetleri bulunmaktadır. Aynı şekilde bazı âyetlerinin Medenî olduğu bilgisi de birçok rivayette vurgulanmaktadır. Farklılaşan rivayetler, En‘âm sûresinin tek seferde mi yoksa belirli bir zaman aralığında peyderpey mi nazil olduğu konusunda bir çelişkiyi beraberinde getirmektedir. Sûrenin nüzulünün mahiyetinin tespit edilmesi ve neticede bu çelişkili durumun giderilmesi önem taşımaktadır. Bu makalede, En‘âm sûresinin metin (...) içi ve metin dışı bağlamının değerlendirilmesi ile sûrenin nüzul sürecinin incelenmesi hedeflenmektedir. Böylece sûrenin tek seferde mi yoksa farklı zamanlarda mı nazil olduğunun tespit edilmesi amaçlanmaktadır. Metin dışı bağlam ile kastedilen, sûrenin tek seferde indiğini ya da sûrenin farklı âyetlerinin farklı zamanlarda ve muhtelif sebeplerle indiğini ifade eden rivayetler ekseninde şekillenen tarihî arka plandır. Metin içi bağlam ile kastedilen ise En‘âm sûresinin lafzî ve anlamsal yapısı ile ortaya çıkan metinsel özellikleridir. Bu şekilde sûrenin hem indirilişine dair rivayetler hem de metinsel özellikleri göz önüne alınarak incelenmekte ve özellikle müfessirlerin konu hakkında ortaya koydukları çözüm önerileri karşılaştırmalı bir analizle değerlendirilmektedir. Bu konu üzerinde son dönem müfessirlerinin çok daha fazla durduğu görülmüştür. Rivayetlerin hem teknik hem de içerik analizi, sûre hakkındaki sebeb-i nüzul rivayetlerin mahiyeti, sûrede ortaya çıkan metinsel bütünlük ilgili müfessirlerin bu mevzuda özellikle üzerinde durdukları konular olmuştur. Zira bazı müfessirler tek seferde indirildiğine yönelik rivayetleri hem sened hem de aksi yöndeki rivayetlerden dolayı sahih bulmamıştır. Birçok müfessir ise sûrenin tek seferde nüzulünün mümkün olduğunu iddia etmiştir. Bu görüşlerini delillendirirken de özellikle sebeb-i nüzul rivayetler üzerinde durmuşlardır. Bu rivayetlerin muteber hadis kaynaklarında yer almadığını ayrıca bunların sonradan âyetin anlamını beyan etmek için yapılan esbâb-ı nüzûl yorumlar olduğunu ifade etmişlerdir. Ayrıca hükmün taahhürü ve nüzul tekrarı gibi usule dair konulardan yararlanarak görüşlerini temellendirmeye çalışmışlardır. Sûredeki metinsel bütünlük de bu kapsamda değerlendirilmiştir. Zira En‘âm sûresinde, müşriklerin Hz. Peygamber’e ve onun tebliğ ettiği dinin her bir esasına karşı yaptıkları itirazların cevaplandığı ve câhiliyeye ait uygulamalarının, örf ve âdetlerinin reddedildiği görülmektedir. Sûrenin ilk âyetinden son âyetine kadar görebildiğimiz metinsel bütünlük ve bu paralelde seyreden tarihî arka plan ayrıca sûrenin “tek seferde nazil olduğunu” bildiren rivayetler hep birlikte ele alınınca En‘âm sûresinin tek seferde indirilmiş olması ihtimalinin yüksek olduğu görülmektedir. (shrink)

Amaç: Kanserle yaşayan bireylerin (KYB) bakımında, resmiyette görünür olmayan ve çoğunlukla herhangi bir profesyonel donanıma sahip olmayan, ama sürecin başından sonuna, hasta bireye eşlik eden bakım verenler kritik öneme sahiptir. Baş etmesi zor bir hastalık olan kanserle mücadele eden bireylerin bakımında, bakım verenler fiziksel, zihinsel ve sosyal birtakım zorluklarla karşılaşmaktadır. Bu araştırma, KYB’lere bakım veren, yakınlarının karşılaştıkları zorlukları gündeme getirmeyi ve ihtimam etiği perspektifinden, bakım verenlerin bakımına yönelik öneriler sunmayı amaçlamaktadır. Gereç ve Yöntem: Bu araştırma tanımlayıcı ve kesitsel olup araştırmanın (...) evreni Marmara Üniversitesi Pendik Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi (MÜPEAH) Onkoloji kliniğinde takip edilen, 15 Mart-5 Nisan tarihleri arasında kemoterapi ünitesine ve servis hizmetlerine başvuran KYB’lerin bakım veren yakınlarıdır. KYB’lere bakım verenlerin umutsuzluk derecelerini tespit etmek ve bunu etkileyen faktörleri ölçmek için, veri toplama aracı olarak; sosyodemografik sorular, bakım alan bireyin hastalık derecesine yönelik sorular ve Beck Umutsuzluk Ölçeği sorularından oluşan bir anket elden dağıtılmıştır. Anket bakım verene yönelik sosyodemografik sorular 8, KYB’nin hastalığının durumu ile ilgili sorular 7, Beck Umutsuzluk Ölçeği 20 olmak üzere 35 sorudan oluşmaktadır ve yaklaşık 10 dakikada tamamlanmaktadır. Elde edilen veriler önce Microsoft Excel aracılığıyla dijitalleştirilmiş, ardından IBM SPSS 27.0.1 sürümüyle analiz edilmiştir. Verilerin analizinde Ki-kare, Fisher’s Exact testi ve Pearson Korelasyon analizi kullanılmış, istatistiksel anlamlılık değeri için p<0.05 kabul edilmiştir. Bulgular: Ankete katılan 151 bakım verenin 83’ü (%55,3) kadın, 67’si (%44,7) erkektir. Katılımcıların yaş ortalaması 40,09’dur. Bakım verenlerin %41,1’i umutsuzluk düzeyi ölçeğinde “minimal ya da yok”, %39,7'si "hafif düzeyde", %13.2'si orta düzeyde ve %6’sı “aşırı düzeyde” skorunu almıştır. KYB’lere bakım verenlerin demografik özellikleri ile umutsuzluk düzeyi arasında anlamlı bir ilişki bulunmamıştır. Bakım verenlerin yaşı, cinsiyeti, medeni durumu, gelir durumu ve bakım verme süresi ile umutsuzluk skorları arasında anlamlı bir ilişki bulunmazken, eğitim seviyesi ile umutsuzluk skorları arasında anlamlı bir ilişki bulunmuştur. (p=0,019). Sonuç: Bakım verenlerin, umutsuzluk düzeyleri göz önüne alındığında, önemli psikolojik yükler taşıdığına ve bu yükün, özellikle bakım verenin eğitim seviyesi ile hastanın sağlık durumu arasında belirgin ilişkiler gösterdiğine ulaşılmıştır. Bu bilgiler ışığında, sosyodemografik özelliklerin bakım verenleri önemli ölçüde etkilediği görülmüştür. Bakım verenlerin duygusal yükleri, bakım alıcılarla olan ilişkileri ve bu sürecin hem bireysel hem toplumsal düzeyde getirdiği zorluklar ve sorumluluklar, ihtimam etiği kapsamında ele alınmıştır. Araştırma neticesinde bakım verenlerin karşılaştığı zorluklar ve ihtiyaçlarının daha geniş bir toplumsal ve etik perspektiften ele alınmasının gerekliliği ortaya konmuştur. Bakım verenlerin bakımına yönelik öneriler, duygusal destek; teorik eğitim ve bilgilendirme desteği; pratik ve uygulamalı destek; kaynak erişimi ve tahsisi; tanıma ve doğrulama başlıkları altında sunulmuştur. (shrink)

The Tafsīr al-Muqātil (d. 150/767) is the oldest available complete commentary text. In this respect, it has been a focus of attention. In this tafsīr, the references to the Battle of Badr in the explanation of some Makkī surahs are remarkably numerous. Badr was the first war that the Prophet made with the polytheists of Makkah, and it took place in the second year of the migration to Madīna (A. H. 2). The polytheists were far superior to the Muslims in (...) terms of both equipment and numbers. Therefore, the success achieved in this expedition meant a lot not only in terms of survival but also in terms of morale of Muslims. Details of this war are included in Surah Anfāl, and various aspects of it are referred to in other Madanī surahs. It is not difficult to understand the mention of such an important war in Madanī surahs. However, the references to the Battle of Badr -which has not yet taken place- in the commentary of the Makkī surahs, are particularly challenging. In this tafsīr, 66 verses of various Makkī surahs are explained through the Battle of Badr. This study was carried out in order to reveal the background of the Badr references of the Makkī surahs in Muqātil tafsīr. Muqātil stands out in the Hadith in terms of reliability, and in the Kalām as a widely discussed personality with his various views. Although he has been criticized from various aspects of his Tafsīr, it is generally considered a great authority. His work is easy to understand; it combines narration and insight. The similar of every possible verse has been given. The author's mastering at the Arabic language showed itself in the words of the Qur’ān. Almost no words remained unexplained. Muqātil is closely related to the Arabic language that had been in effect in the era of revelation, and he generally carried out his tafsīr activities by considering the era of revelation. In Muqātil's view of tafsīr, no verse is independent from the experiences of the period, and each verse gains meaning with its context. In his tafsīr, Muqātil draws a view of Badr without alternatives. While other tafsīrs include other achievements of Muslims in addition to Badr, such as the victory of the Battle of the Ditch and the conquest of Makkah, in the tafsīr of Muqātil the difference of Badr as the biggest blow against the polytheists of Makkah is clearly stated. It may not be very convincing to explain his insistence on Badr as random touches and sometimes anachronistic mistakes, given his skill in tafsīr and his command of the Qur’ān in terms of both content and language. Badr stands as a conscious choice, not a mistake in Muqātil. As it can be seen in examining the verses, the forward-looking statements present in the majority of the verses; this emphasis also prepared the ground for Muqātil's explanations. In any case, Muqātil sometimes did not care about falling into historical inconsistency. If we exclude these 5 verses, which can be explained with Badr although they are Makkī, the attitudes of other commentators regarding the emphasis of Badr in the Makkī verses in the remaining 61 verses are as follows: al-Ṭabarī (d.310/923) included the views pointing to Badr in only 3 of the 61 verses in his tafsīr. This shows us that the emphasis of Badr in the Makkī verses was not generally adopted by other early commentators except Muqātil. Because in al-Ṭabarī's tafsīr, the views on tafsīr from the era of Aṣ-ṣaḥābah (the Companions), Tābiʿūn (the second generation following the Companions) and Tābiʿū al-Tābʿīn (the third generation) are mentioned together with isnad (the chain of reporters), except for Muqātil and al-Kalbī. al-Zad̲j̲d̲j̲ād̲j̲ (d. 311/923), who was contemporary of Ṭabarī, included Badr in only two of the 61 verses in his philological tafsīr. In other words, al-Zad̲j̲d̲j̲ād̲j̲ is on a very different line from Muqātil regarding Badr. al-Māturīdī (d. 330/944) included Badr among other explanations in only 4 of the 61 verses in his tafsīr, and did not mention Muqātil's view even among the possible meanings of the other verses. al-Rāzī (d. 606/1210) included Badr in 10 of 61 verses among other explanations. In the remaining 51 verses, he did not find it necessary to mention Muqātil's view along with other possibilities. Apparently, al-Rāzī, like others, did not consider Muqātil's explanations reasonable. Nevertheless, Razi was the commentator who gave greater place to the Badr emphasis of Muqātil in his tafsīr. In this case, how can the passion for Badr, seen in the Muqātil tafsīr, be explained? We think it would be correct to seek the reasons of Muqātil's -sometimes reasonable, sometimes inappropriate, and sometimes anachronistic- explanations of Badr in the importance he gave to this expedition and in the method of relying on concrete data in the interpretation of the Qur’ānic verses. In his view of tafsīr, no verse is independent of the experiences of the period. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Constituer le Réel. Noétique et Métaphysique chez Dietrich de Freiberg by Véronique DecaixBrian Francis ConollyVéronique Decaix. Constituer le Réel. Noétique et Métaphysique chez Dietrich de Freiberg. Paris: Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin, 2021. Pp. 336. Paperback, $48.00.Dietrich of Freiberg's theory of the constitutive power of the intellect, as presented in his De origine rerum praedicamentalium, has proved unusually resistant to contextualization within the philosophical and theological discussions at the (...) University of Paris in the last two decades of the thirteenth century. There is little indication in the quodlibet literature that any of his contemporaries were aware of his unusual doctrine, let alone interested in responding to it, and Dietrich himself provides few hints as to which quaestiones of contemporary interest he is responding to. One therefore welcomes this study by Véronique Decaix in which it is argued that "il est irréfutable que les concepts centraux du De origine ont été forgés dans une discussion permanente avec Henri de Gand" (223). Drawing upon and developing the work of Pasquale Porro, Jan Aersten, and others, Decaix establishes Dietrich's indebtedness to Henry of Ghent, all while providing a comprehensive and remarkably clear, detailed, and precise presentation of Dietrich's theory of the constitutive power of the intellect. [End Page 706]Particularly noteworthy is the manner in which Decaix clarifies that there are several distinct ways in which the intellect, on Dietrich's theory, exercises its constitutive power. Thus, for instance, "categorial constitution," whereby certain relations and the six posterior relative categories are constituted, is distinguished from "quidditative constitution," wherein a real natural thing is constituted in its quidditative being, which is at the same time the mode or manner in which the intellect constitutes its own proper object. Decaix clarifies that such modes of constitution differ not only with respect to what is constituted, but by the kind of causality exercised by the intellect. Categorial constitution is a kind of formal causality—because it concerns only accidents, and because intellect grasps these accidents "sur une modalité déduite d'un élément extrinsèque" (284)—whereas quidditative constitution is efficient—it is "plus fondamentale, car elle est plus essentielle et plus intérieure" and "s'exerce sur la forme substantielle et cause l'étant en tant qu'étant" (286). In either case, whether the mode of constitution is categorial or quidditative, Decaix makes clear that constitution is not creation, and does not pertain to the reality or absolute entity of the thing affected by the intellect's constitutive power. Rather, constitution in the relevant sense here entails introducing and imposing upon the real natural thing a new mode of being: with respect to categorial constitution, that mode of being is ad aliud (to be in relation to another); with respect to quidditative constitution, the constituted mode of being is quidditative being.Decaix argues that Dietrich consciously develops his theory of categorial relation within the framework provided by Henry of Ghent. She cites as evidence, among other factors, that Dietrich concludes his analysis of categorial relation with what Decaix calls the "exacte contre-pied" (154) to question 3 of Henry's Quodlibet IX: "Utrum circumscripta re sui fundamenti relatio possit signari per nomen primae impositionis?" Dietrich in effect responds: "Si autem ab huiusmodi entibus removeamus actum rationis, tunc secundum nullum modum sunt entia quantum ad id, quod significatur per nomen, sed relinquitur sola realitas et entitas fundamenti" (160).Question 3 of Henry's Quodlibet IX is still more important for Decaix's argument. For she sees herein more than a germ of Dietrich's doctrine of the constitutive power of the intellect. As Decaix explains, in addition to the real foundation (quantity or quality) provided by nature, and the pure ratio of relation, provided by the intellect, Henry introduces the modus characterizatus a re, whereby the peculiar nature of the foundation (e.g. the length or the color) particularizes the general notion of the pure relation (157–58). Thus, the real, particular relation, for example, "is shorter than" or "is similar to," arises only from both nature and the intellect as joint contributing causes. In this... (shrink)

The EU Kids Online project aims to enhance knowledge of the experiences and practices of European children and their parents regarding online risks and safety. A crucial research effort by the EU Kids Online network has been a survey in 25 European countries which targeted approximately 1,000 children per country. This article applies a cross-cultural values filter to the data that were gathered on parental mediation and the Internet in this survey. Our intention is to test whether Geert Hofstede’s cross-national (...) research results about national cultural values also apply to the EU Kids Online data on parental mediation. This implies studying collectivism versus individualism, low versus high power distance, masculinity versus femininity and low versus high uncertainty avoidance. We test whether differences between nations on these four dimensions correlate with differences between countries in parental mediation of the Internet and we test which European countries form clusters. (shrink)

This article reports on a survey of youth in Brussels and their ownership and use of digital technologies, focusing specifically on the social and cultural diversity within this group. Socio-cultural diversity includes differences regarding ethnicity and gender, language and educational attainment, as well as social and economic status. The relationship of these socio-cultural differences with the digital divide in terms of ownership and use is investigated. The data show a persistent ownership divide between socially weaker versus stronger groups accompanied by (...) an emerging socially compensatory function of instrumentally oriented user profiles among the socially weaker groups. (shrink)

Thomas Reid delivered philosophical orations triennially, in Latin, at graduation ceremonies in King's College, Aberdeen, 1753-1762. Each of the four orations is a summary of Reid's views on several philosophical topics, e.g. the "laws of practising philosophy"; the philosophy of science; the "theory of ideas". This translation from the Latin text is prefaced with an historical and philosophical introduction to the thought of Reid and his school. The text is footnoted with cross-references to Reid's published writings to enable the reader (...) to compare these early expressions of Reid's philosophy with his mature thought. A thorough bibliography of the most available editions of Reid's works and of the most important modern books and articles on Reid is appended. (shrink)

In disputes about the ontology of music, musical idealism—that is, the view that musical compositions are ideas—has proven to be rather unpopular. We argue that, once we have a better grip on the ontology of ideas, we can formulate a version of musical idealism that is not only defensible, but plausible and attractive. We conclude that compositions are a particular kind of idea: they are completed ideas for musical manifestation.

In this important study D. M. Armstrong offers a comprehensive system of analytical metaphysics that synthesises but also develops his thinking over the last twenty years. Armstrong's analysis, which acknowledges the 'logical atomism' of Russell and Wittgenstein, makes facts the fundamental constituents of the world, examining properties, relations, numbers, classes, possibility and necessity, dispositions, causes and laws. All these, it is argued, find their place and can be understood inside a scheme of states of affairs. This is a comprehensive and (...) rigorously this-worldly account of the most general features of reality, argued from a distinctive philosophical perspective, and it will appeal to a wide readership in analytical philosophy. (shrink)

Tetris provides a difficult, dynamic task environment within which some people are novices and others, after years of work and practice, become extreme experts. Here we study two core skills; namely, choosing the goal or objective function that will maximize performance and a feature-based analysis of the current game board to determine where to place the currently falling zoid so as to maximize the goal. In Study 1, we build cross-entropy reinforcement learning models to determine whether different goals result in (...) different feature weights. Two of these optimization strategies quickly rise to performance plateaus, whereas two others continue toward higher but more jagged heights. In Study 2, we compare the zoid placement decisions made by our best CERL models with those made by 67 human players. Across 370,131 human game episodes, two CERL models picked the same zoid placements as our lowest scoring human for 43% of the placements and as our three best scoring experts for 65% of the placements. Our findings suggest that people focus on maximizing points, not number of lines cleared or number of levels reached. They also show that goal choice influences the choice of zoid placements for CERLs and suggest that the same is true of humans. Tetris has a repetitive task structure that makes Tetris more tractable and more like a traditional experimental psychology paradigm than many more complex games or tasks. Hence, although complex, Tetris is not overwhelmingly complex and presents a right-sized challenge to cognitive theories, especially those of integrated cognitive systems. (shrink)

Within three of the most well-known contemporary approaches to argumentation, the notions of solo argumentation and arguing with one’s self are given little attention and are typically argued to be able to be subsumed within the dialectical aspects of the approach being propounded. Challenging these claims, this paper has two main aims. The first is to argue that while dialogical argumentation may be most common, there exists individual dialectical argumentation, which is not so easily subsumed within these theories. Second, in (...) order characterize this type of argumentation the paper also offers distinctions between the interrelated notions of dialectical, dialogical, and quasi-dialogical, reasoning and argumentation, within an individual or between multiple participants, which I hope provide useful precision for the field. (shrink)

Theological study and teaching at Oxford prior to the First World War have been characterized as unambitious and lacking in critical rigour. In contrast to the constructive theological endeavours of biblical scholars at Cambridge or the bold revisionism of F.D. Maurice at King's College London, Oxford's theological teaching and research are perceived through the lens of E.B. Pusey and his High Church colleagues. Prior to the First World War, however, circumstances and personalities coincided to produce a radical set of proposals (...) from the Board of the Faculty of Theology under the leadership of Henry Scott Holland, Regius Professor of Divinity from 1910 until his death in 1918. Had Oxford's graduate legislative assembly, Convocation, not comprehensively rejected the reforms approved by the resident MAs, Oxford's Faculty might have been transformed into an influential centre of comparative religion. In this article, the prevailing accounts of Oxonian ‘narrowness’ are challenged through an account of this seminal moment in the history of the Faculty. Using correspondence from the Bodleian Library Special Collections, minutes and reports from the Oxford University Archives, pamphlet material and national, ecclesiastical, and University journals, the article seeks to identify the reasoning behind the proposed reforms and the significance of that reasoning for the history of modern theology in England. In so doing, it is suggested that the standard characterization of theological life at Oxford in the ‘long nineteenth century’ merits revision and further clarification. (shrink)

This article examines difficulties with bureaucratic reform for transitional economies, drawing on the American experience. Bureaucracies have incentive and performance problems that could retard economic growth in transitional economies. A remedy for a politicized corrupt bureaucracy is an autonomous, professional bureaucracy, chosen on the basis of merit. This article argues, however, such a move will not necessarily bring improvement. Political controls over the bureaucracy must be developed and inserted so that the bureaucracy has incentives to be more efficient and to (...) be more responsive to changing citizen demands. The American experience indicates that absent such provisions, a highly-protected, professional bureaucracy can engage in opportunism to advance its interests and those interests may not coincide with promoting economic growth.Cet article examine les difficultés auxquelles font face les tentatives de réforme de la bureaucratie dans les économies en transition en s’inspirant de l’expérience américaine. Les questions d’incitation et l’inefficacité des bureaucraties pourraient retarder la croissance économique dans les économies en transition. Une bureaucratie autonome, professionnelle, choisie sur la base du mérite est un remède à une bureaucratie politiquement corrompue. Cependant, cet article soutient qu’une telle démarche n’engendre pas nécessairement des améliorations. Il faut en plus élaborer des contrôles politiques de la bureaucratie afin que celle-ci soit incitée à être plus efficace et davantage sensible aux besoins changeants des citoyens. L’expérience américaine indique qu’en l’absence de telles dispositions, une bureaucratie professionnelle et très protégée peut se comporter de manière opportuniste en cherchant à promouvoir ses propres intérêts, pas toujours compatibles avec l’accélération de la croissance économique. (shrink)

Vendler’s :161–173, 1979) puzzle about imagination is that the sentences ‘Imagine swimming in that water’ and ‘Imagine yourself swimming in that water’ seem at once semantically different and semantically the same. They seem semantically different, since the first requires you to imagine ’from the inside’, while the second allows you to imagine ’from the outside.’ They seem semantically the same, since despite superficial dissimilarity, there is good reason to think that they are syntactically and lexically identical. This paper sets out (...) the puzzle and offers a novel solution. Our proposal is that, just as there is knowledge-wh, there is also imagining-wh and that the inside/outside distinction Vendler points to is properly understood as a distinction within imagining-wh. In particular, to imagine swimming from the inside is to imagine what it feels like to swim, while to imagine swimming from the outside is to imagine what it looks like to swim. We show that this proposal is well grounded in both the semantics and syntax of ‘imagine.’ We also argue it makes better sense than its rivals of the data Vendler found so puzzling. (shrink)

Originally published in 1936, this book presents the ancient Greek text of the paraphrases and quotations of Zeno's philosophical arguments, together with a facing-page English translation and editorial commentary. Detailed notes are incorporated throughout and a bibliography is also included. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in Zeno and ancient philosophy.

Background While there are many guidelines on how to make ethical decisions at the end of life, there is little evidence regarding the quality of this sort of ethical guidelines. Objectives First, this study aims to demonstrate the conceptual transferability of the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE) instrument for the quality assessment of ethical guidelines. Second, it aims to illustrate the status quo of the quality of guidelines on end-of-life decision-making by using the AGREE instrument in a (...) first practice test. Method The transferability of the AGREE instrument on the quality assessment of ethical guidelines is demonstrated by conceptual analysis. Guidelines on end-of-life decisions in medicine are identified through a systematic search in MEDLINE (from June 1999 to June 2009). The quality of all included guidelines was assessed with a slightly modified AGREE instrument. Results Of 103 guidelines identified, 34 were included as relevant. The majority of the guidelines analysed in this study were assessed as qualitatively insufficient in five out of six AGREE quality domains. A few guidelines demonstrated, however, that a high level of quality in accordance with the AGREE requirements is possible. Conclusion This review concludes that the quality of many ethical guidelines should and can be improved in all quality domains specified by the AGREE instrument. Furthermore, conceptual analysis indicates that a slightly modified AGREE instrument is transferable to the comprehensive evaluation of the quality of ethical guidelines. Nevertheless, future research is needed to improve the assessment of the presentation of the guidelines' normative basis. (shrink)

The subject of the present inquiry is the approach-to-the-truth research, which started with the publication of Sir Karl Popper's Conjectures and Refutations. In the decade before this publication, Popper fiercely attacked the ideas of Rudolf Carnap about confirmation and induction; and ten years later, in the famous tenth chapter of Conjectures he introduced his own ideas about scientific progress and verisimilitude. Abhorring inductivism for its apprecia tion of logical weakness rather than strength, Popper tried to show that fallibilism could serve (...) the purpose of approach to the truth. To substantiate this idea he formalized the common sense intuition about preferences, that is: B is to be preferred to A if B has more advantages andfewer drawbacks than A. In 1974, however, David Millerand Pavel Tichy proved that Popper's formal explication could not be used to compare false theories. Subsequently, many researchers proposed alternatives or tried to improve Popper's original definition. (shrink)

Eric Barnes’ The Paradox of Predictivism is concerned primarily with two facts: predictivism (the fact that novel predictions play an important part in scientificconfirmation) and pluralism (the fact that scientific development is not just a matter of isolated individuals judging the truth, but at least partly a matter of trusting legitimate experts). In the middle part of the book, he peers through these two lenses at the tired realist scarecrow of the no-miracles argument. He attempts to reanimate this weatherworn realist (...) argument, contra suggestions by people like me that it should be abandoned. In this paper, I want to get clear on Barnes’ contribution to the debate. He focuses on what he calls the miraculous endorsement argument, which explains not the success of a specific theory but instead the history of successes for an entire research program. The history of successes is explained by reliable and improving methods, which are the flipside of approximately true background theories. Yet, as Barnes notes, the whole story must begin with methods that are at least minimally reliable. Barnes demands that the realist explain the origin of the minimally reliable take-off point, and he suggests a way that the realist might do so. I contend that his explanation still relies on contingent developments and so fails to completely explain the development of take-off theories. However, this line of argument digs into familiar details of the no-miracles argument and overlooks what’s new in Barnes’ approach. By calling attention to pluralism, he reminds us that we need an account of scientific expertise. This is important, I suggest, because expertise is not indefinite. We do not trust specific experts for everything, but only for things within the bounds of their expertise. Drawing these boundaries relies on our own background theories and is only likely to be reliable if our background theories are approximately true. I argue, then, that pluralism gives us reason to be realists (about some things). (shrink)

This article suggests that Chomsky’s notorious ‘London’ argument against semantics looks much more plausible that it is usually interpreted as being when seen in the light of something apparently remote from its concerns, viz., David Lewis’s distinction between natural and non-natural properties.

This article reports on Flemish college students’ news orientations and their uses of traditional and new media for news within a public service media environment. We used five homogeneous focus groups that covered variation in news media use. The analysis of the focus groups revealed major differences in news behaviors and attitudes between participants who mainly depended on traditional media for news, and those who also went online for news. While a growing body of research reports on young people’s increasing (...) use of online media for news, particularly among those that are most disengaged with traditional news media, our findings indicated that only the most eager news-users were motivated to gather information online. Additionally, we found that traditional media, in particular national quality papers and the Flemish public service newscast, were still the main reference points for public affairs information among our participants. (shrink)

In this research we focus on ethnic minorities, one of the underserved groups in Europe. In particular, we address the internet use of Turkish ethnic children, aged 9 to 16, in several EU countries. We examine the extent to which they can be considered digitally disadvantaged when compared to the majority population in those countries. We also compare Turkish children living in Turkey to those in the diaspora as well as to the majority children living in those same European countries. (...) The data used for this analysis is part of the EU Kids Online research. Of the three groups of teenagers examined, those in the Turkish diaspora take a position in between their native European peers, who are the most fervent surfers on the internet, and the Turkish children living in Turkey, who use the internet least often. Generally speaking that is also true for online competencies and online activities. As far as exposure to online risks is concerned, European majority children are more familiar than the two other groups with receiving sex-related images and messages and with face-to-face meetings with online contacts. By contrast, children in the Turkish diaspora are relatively more familiar with cyberbullying. (shrink)

William Alston once argued that justification is not necessary for knowledge. He was convinced of this because he thought that, in cases of clear perception, one could come to know that P even if one’s justification for believing P was defeated. The idea is that the epistemic strength of clear perception is sufficient to provide knowledge even where justification is lacking; perceiving (and believing) that P is sufficient for knowing that P. In this paper, I explore a claim about knowledge (...) that is the opposite side of the coin from Alston’s position: clear perception (with belief) that P is necessary for knowledge. Taking my cue from John Locke, I examine the plausibility of a theory of knowledge that distinguishes justified true unGettiered belief that P from knowing that P. Although I don’t fully advocate this position, I argue that it has significant plausibility, and that the initially troubling consequences of the account are not as problematic as one might have suspected. (shrink)

The main object of this thesis is to explain in a systematic fashion Francis Hutcheson's moral theory. Such an attempt will necessarily involve a discussion of the various philosophical problems which are inherent in his theory. For example, I discuss the issue of whether Hutcheson's theory of the moral sense is to be interpreted in an intuitionist or an emotivist fashion. It is argued that some aspects of his moral sense theory favour the former and some the latter interpretation, Hutcheson's (...) theory of benevolence is outlined and his' arguments against the psychological egoists are discussed. Perhaps the most important problem with Hutcheson's moral sense theory is the problem of motivation. Any moral theory which locates the virtue of virtuous actions in the motive from which they are done, as Hutcheson's does, will encounter problems in explaining how knowledge of right and wrong can influence us to be virtuous. Hutcheson's ingenious solution to this problem and his theory of moral motivation, which I suggest have not been adequately discussed previously to this thesis, are explicated at length. Hutcheson's criticisms of the moral rationalists are considered, as are Price's criticisms of Hutcheson. A final chapter attempts to show how the development of Hutcheson's thinking was the result of his realizing the implications of his own theories, especially his theory of moral motivation. (shrink)