This paper explores attitudes regarding tax evasion and the relationship between personal moral philosophy and such attitudes in a weak tax environment. The results confirm the multidimensionality of tax evasion attitudes. Idealism was negatively related to self-interest tax evasion attitudes while relativism was positively related to such attitudes. Idealism was also positively related to tax evasion attitudes stemming from concerns about the justice of the tax system. Idealists in a weak tax environment seemingly go through a cognitive reframing process where (...) they recognize that the tax system is unfair, and accordingly tax evasion is a way to serve a different moral absolute, that is of equity, rather than another different moral absolute, which is fulfilling obligations to governments. The results are also explained in light of the suggested low moral intensity of tax evasion among respondents. Policy implications are presented. (shrink)

Among Turkic speaking countries there is solidarity in economic, political and military fields. Moreover, they carry out common studies within the universities of these countries. As a result, the relationship among the communities is getting stronger via these studies. This research serves as an example of this development. The problem sentence of the research; “Do students’ perceptions change about Turkey after they’ve completed an internship period in Turkey?”. In this research, it was studied to determine Kyrgyz students’ impression about our (...) country Turkey, before and after their intership period in Turkey. The study was implemented within the survey model design. Research’s universe is the students who study in Yusuf Balasagun Krygyz National University, Liberal Arts University, in Kyrgyzstan Turkey Manas University during their education in the year of 2018-2019. As for the research sampling, students who are in the city of Antalya for the purpose of internship were selected from Yusuf Balasagun Kyrgyz National University, Liberal Arts University, in Kyrgyzstan Manas University. A total of 49 students were attented the research. According to the results of the research; internship students have generally positive opinions about Turkey and Turkish people. This is pleasing result for our country. The students think that the Language Enhancement Program will be useful for them to learn Turkish better. (shrink)

The dominant approach to understanding Islamic Business Ethics has been based almost exclusively on either interpretations of the Qur’an and Sunna or influenced by Western understanding of Islam and ethics. However, there is a rich—largely ignored-tradition of ethical analysis conducted by Muslim philosophers which would broaden our understanding of Islamic ethics and hence IBE. We seek to correct this imbalance by examining works of Al-Ghazali, an early Muslim philosopher, scholar, and mystic. His approach to Sufism, combining an interpretation of revelation (...) with reason, can contribute to new developments in business ethics scholarship and practice especially in Muslim communities. His thought portrays a vibrant work ethic that, while based in Sufism, has important practical implications for business. We argue that including such historically and contextually recognized perspectives in our understanding of BE, both in theory and in practice, would work well with an audience that looks to Islam as a source of justice and proper moral conduct. (shrink)

This article begins with the premise that market-oriented development strategies require more than the free movement of the factors of production from one use to another; they also require a positive work ethic and an energetic and committed workforce. However, the existing Arab work ethic does not seem conducive to␣development and change. This article assesses some antecedents that might have led to the emergence of the existing work ethic. First, we address the potential role of religion in developing a value (...) system that is not conducive to growth and development. We also tackle family dynamics in the Arab world and the impact of family structures on personal and group development. Then, we move our attention to the educational system in the Arab world trying to uncover any common patterns in the various educational approaches in the Arab world that could have had lasting impressions on power dynamics in␣Arab societies. We also address power and leadership relationships and focus our attention on how groups actually function in the Arab world. Thereafter, we tackle what has emerged out of these societal institutions and relationships, and offer some implications marking out paths for international managers. (shrink)

Mobility is becoming a defining feature of today’s globalising society. Individuals move for a variety of reasons, including finding employment or pursuing education. This paper focuses on the interrelationship between two different types of migrants who have all moved out of one specific country to another. It builds on the perceptions of Turkish graduates of German universities who moved cross-border recently to study in German universities, the self-styled ‘New Wave Turks’, to understand their place within the existing Turkish diaspora there. (...) Although the existing Turkish diaspora in Germany is well researched, as is how diasporas can facilitate further mobility, the interaction between these newcomers and the existing Turkish diaspora in Germany has received little scholarly attention. Through in-depth semi-structured interviews with recent Turkish graduates of German universities, we explored how the existing diaspora provides support but also challenges for the newcomers, complicating their experiences. We argue that international student mobility led to the emergence of a new form of ‘total diaspora’ in Germany, comprising both the existing Turkish diaspora and newly joined Turkish graduates of German universities. Social media was instrumental for these newcomers in setting themselves apart within the total diaspora, allowing them to create their own community identity. (shrink)

RésuméCet article traite d’une solution au tristement célèbre paradoxe du menteur, généralement connu dans la littérature arabe sous le nom de Maġlaṭat al-ǧaḏr al-aṣamm. La solution est donnée dans un traité ottoman du XVe siècle attribué, entre autres, à Ḫaṭībzāde Muḥyiddīn Efendī. L’article la compare également à la solution du philosophe persan contemporain, Ǧalāl al-Dīn al-Dawānī. Le court traité consacré au paradoxe est l’un des rares ouvrages des Ottomans sur le sujet et il aborde de manière exhaustive le paradoxe sous (...) ses deux formes. En tant qu’analyse de la solution offerte par le traité au paradoxe, l’article fait connaître à l’érudition contemporaine les discussions ottomanes sur le menteur, et il contribue à combler le vide évident dans la littérature sur le paradoxe dans la pensée islamique. (shrink)

Recent developments in Western bioethics and biomedicine have called for the need to be culture-sensitive in handling certain bioethical issues. As a result of this anthropological turn in bioethics and biomedicine, there are cultural differences in moral attitudes such as disclosure of terminal illnesses, reproductive technologies, stem cell research, prenatal screening, genetic screening, therapeutic cloning, organ transplant, brain death, physician assisted suicide and so on.This paper offers an examination of the socio-culturally framed ways of dealing with Western and African bioethics (...) particularly as it relates to assisted reproductive technology. It focuses on the ethical issues surrounding assisted reproductive technology from an African perspective making special reference to their religious beliefs by drawing on the Christian and Islamic culture. Effort is made to distinguish between Western and African approaches to assisted reproduction stressing the fact of cultural diversity in issues relating to these reproductive techniques. It argues for the need to take social and cultural meanings embedded in various bioethical issues into consideration in arriving at different conclusions about issues in assisted reproduction in order to give room for adequate understanding.The paper concludes by emphasizing the need to acknowledge cultural diversity in bioethics giving reasons why this diversity is crucial and suggesting ways of handling this diversity. (shrink)

Current developments in feminist epistemology stem from the recognition that knowledge is socially constructed and therefore, must be seen in the context of the social relations in which its production occurs. This version of epistemology stresses the view that individual experiences and knowledge claims are possible only within a community.The concern of this paper is to examine the empiricist account of knowledge. It questions the adequacy of the empiricist attempt to base knowledge on perceptual experience, pointing out that experience has (...) a wider focus than what empiricists allow.Feminist epistemology takes off as a critique of empiricist epistemology on the grounds that the empiricist conception of knowledge fails to acknowledge the fact that knowledge operates in sociohistorical contexts. This accounts for a major limitation in the empiricist conception of knowledge. In order to underscore the thesis of feminist epistemology, the Yoruba women's experience is used, drawing on such factors as women's reproductive experiences and how these experiences can bear upon epistemological inquiry. (shrink)

Nigeria is developing country where the practice of euthanasia is not legalized. But a look at the socio-economic conditions of Nigeria calls for the need to legalize the practice in this country. This paper examines the features of this country such as poverty, endemic diseases and a low level of investment in healthcare systems . It argues for the need to legalize euthanasia by justifying it as a policy and practice and identifying factors which are to be taken into account. (...) They include poor standard of living which reduces the life span of many and limited health care resources which prevents access to health care. The paper justifies legalizing euthanasia in Nigeria by responding to some arguments against euthanasia raised by critics emphasizing at the same time ethical issues such as autonomy, dignity and quality of life for euthanasia debate. It concludes by stressing that in Nigeria, a competent person who is terminally ill and undergoing severe pain should be able to determine how and when to end his life; the possibility of this will only depend on the legalization of euthanasia in this country. (shrink)

Xenophobia, a form of discrimination practiced in countries, particularly in South Africa, is one of the major challenges confronting the modern day society. This paper examines xenophobia as a menace showing at the same time that this discriminatory practice bifurcates societies by creating a dichotomy amidst the various occupants of the society, thereby giving room for “otherness” rather than “orderliness”. The paper also highlights the philosophical implications of this societal bifurcation, particularly to the human community. Seeking a plausible way of (...) addressing this challenge, the paper concludes by emphasizing the relevance of the value of tolerance in curbing xenophobia. Keywords : Xenophobia, Social discrimination, Tolerance, order and other, Africa. (shrink)

PurposeSelf-efficacy has been argued theoretically and shown empirically to be an essential construct for students’ improved learning outcomes. However, there is a dearth of studies on its causal effects on performance in mathematics among university students. Meanwhile, it will be erroneous to assume that results from other fields of studies generalize to mathematics learning due to the task-specificity of the construct. As such, attempts are made in the present study to provide evidence for a causal relationship between self-efficacy and performance (...) with a focus on engineering students following a mathematics course at a Norwegian university.MethodThe adopted research design in the present study is a survey type in which collected data from first-year university students are analyzed using structural equation modeling with weighted least square mean and variance adjusted estimator. Data were generated using mainly questionnaires, a test of prior mathematics knowledge, and the students’ final examination scores in the course. The causal effect of self-efficacy was discerned from disturbance effects on performance by using an innovative instrumental variable approach to structural equation modeling.ResultsThe findings confirmed a significant direct effect of the prior mathematics knowledge test on self-efficacy, a significant direct effect of self-efficacy on performance, and a substantial mediating effect of self-efficacy between a prior mathematics knowledge test and performance. Prior mathematics knowledge and self-efficacy explained 30% variance of the performance. These findings are interpreted to be substantial evidence for the causal effect of self-efficacy on students’ performance in an introductory mathematics course.ConclusionThe findings of the present study provide empirically supports for designing self-efficacy interventions as proxies to improve students’ performance in university mathematics. Further, the findings of the present study confirm some postulates of Bandura’s agentic social cognitive theory. (shrink)

As in all languages, there are various structures in the syntax in Arabic. Some of these structures are about phonetic and some are about syntax. In this study, the subject of iṭba‘, which takes place in the syntax structure form in Arabic, is discussed. First of all, the phenomenon of iṭba‘, which consists of bringing a second word to reinforce the first word in terms of meter and rhyme, has been examined in terms of its use in Arabic. The expression (...) “Hasanun basanun” in Arabic can be given as an example of iṭba'. In this example, it can be said that the second word, basanun, was introduced to emphasize the word hasenun and also adds a phonetic form to the sentence. In this context, it is possible to say that the main benefit of iṭba‘ is decoration and reinforcement. This subject, which is discussed under the title of "reduplication" with various parts in Turkish, has not been mentioned in terms of Turkish language in the study. The classical period usages of iṭba‘ examples are mostly discussed. As a matter of fact, most of them are out of circulation in the modern period. However, it is possible to encounter this type of usage in literary texts. In Arabic, this subject has been handled with different titles such as iṭba‘, muhāzat, muzāwaja, izdiwāj. In this study, the subject was examined with the name iṭba‘. As a matter of fact, there are some differences between it and the others. For this reason, our study has been concluded by examining the semantic differences between the derivatives of iṭba‘ and determining the results. (shrink)

Racism and Its Presuppositions: Towards a Pragmatic Ethics of Social Change Racism has been described as a litmus test or a barium meal which reveals other disorders and injustices within the body politic. It presupposes the legitimacy of racial classifications and the metaphysical reality of races and therefore provides a vital area of scrutiny for philosophical traditions. This paper examines racism and its anti-social effects both on the individual and the society at large. It argues that racism is generally driven (...) by fear and hatred hence all forms of racism are dangerous, socially harmful and morally wrong in practice. The paper recommends ways of overcoming the evil of racism by emphasizing social intelligence and self-realization as moral ideals drawing on John Dewey's pragmatism in ethics. It concludes by stressing Dewey's moral pragmatism as a potent instrument of social change. (shrink)

BackgroundIdentifying biomarkers for autism can improve outcomes for those affected by autism. Engaging the diverse stakeholders in the research process using community-based participatory research can accelerate biomarker discovery into clinical applications. However, there are limited examples of stakeholder involvement in autism research, possibly due to conceptual and practical concerns. We evaluate the applicability of CBPR principles to biomarker discovery in autism and critically review empirical studies adopting these principles.MethodsUsing a scoping review methodology, we identified and evaluated seven studies using CBPR (...) principles in biomarker discovery.Results and conclusionsThe limited number of studies in biomarker discovery adopting CBPR principles coupled with their methodological limitations suggests that such applications are feasible but challenging. These studies illustrate three CBPR themes: community assessment, setting global priorities, and collaboration in research design. We propose that further research using participatory principles would be useful in accelerating the pace of discovery and the development of clinically meaningful biomarkers. For this goal to be successful we advocate for increased attention to previously identified conceptual and methodological challenges to participatory approaches in health research, including improving scientific rigor and developing long-term partnerships among stakeholders. (shrink)

This study is devoted to the ways and means to justify a ‘more’ cosmopolitan realization of certain policy implications, in the case of immigration. The raison d’être of this study is the idea that the contemporary debate over open borders suffers from indeterminate discussions on whether liberal states are entitled to restrict immigration. On the other hand, most of the liberal cosmopolitan accounts neglect the detrimental consequences of their open borders argument – which take it as a means to compensate (...) people in need –, such as brain drain and the effects of brain drain on the opportunity sets of members of sending countries. Therefore I offer a moral cosmopolitan account of immigration which takes the interests of would-be immigrants, the residents in receiving, along with the residents in sending countries in respect to their opportunity sets because of the way arbitrary border control represents the inequality of opportunity. I do not provide a well-formed immigration policy here, yet I believe the account provided here is more feasible in considering phenomena such as brain drain. (shrink)

Responsible Management in Theory and Practice in Muslim Societies delineates principles of responsible management from an Islamic perspective, exploring the concept of responsibility in Islamic religious texts, and how the understanding of responsibility evolved in Islamic jurisprudence. He explains aspects of individual and group responsibility in Islam and the dissonance between theoretical discourse and practical application. Yusuf M. Sidani focuses on the factors that have both facilitated and hampered the application of responsible management principles in practice in this unique (...) context. Themes explored across the book include Islamic texts and responsible leadership, responsibility in Islamic jurisprudence, individual and group responsibilities, and bridging the gap divide between theory and practice in Muslim societies. Sidani also poses proactive questions, including 'Who is a responsible manager?' and 'what does it take to reaffirm both individual and collective responsibilities', and 'whether things can be put back on track again in Muslim societies, and how?'. (shrink)

This paper explores a neglected category of propositions in Arabic logic, propositions with negative predicates (sālibat al-maḥmūl), by addressing two pivotal questions concerning this propositional form: first, whether it is possible to defend it as distinct from metathetic and simple negative propositions and second, whether affirmative instances of these propositions have existential import. The paper argues for the existence of two distinct and conflicting theories of existential import frequently implicit in the views of Arabic logicians: one centered on the copula (...) and the other on the predicate. (shrink)

ABSTRACT:We examine the practice of nepotism in the Arab World and analyze how a rational-legal model of bureaucracy was never able to take hold. We draw upon ideas from institutional theory and related notions of legitimacy to provide an explanation of nepotism’s extraordinary persistence. Then we use arguments to speculate how the appearance of institutional entrepreneurs who are advocates for a new hybrid form of nepotism might begin to colonize a social space created by larger political and economic changes that (...) are sweeping the Arab World. Those entrepreneurs must persuade other members of an extended family that the current practice of nepotism is typically destructive of a firm’s competitive performance. In addition, they will argue that nepotism as currently practiced violates teachings of Islam. This second argument is likely to be particularly effective with an audience that sees Islam as a source of universal notions of justice and fairness. (shrink)

This article analyzes the position of Ibn Hilāl, who is regarded as nāsıbī and ghālī, in the science of Shia rijāl, his reports and the validity of the accusations against him. It is found that narrators are criticized for various reasons in the science of Shiʻa rijāl. Some of them are the Shiite followers that the imams cursed and wanted to be kept away from their adherence. It is seen that the narrations reported by some of the narrators are included (...) in the main sources of Shiite hadith, albeit these narrators were cursed by the innocent imams. Ahmed Ibn Hilāl (d. 267/880) is one of these narrators cursed by the imams and his name is found in the report (the isnād) of many early narrations. Ibn Hilāl, one of the close companions of Shia's 10th imam Ali b. Muḥammed al-Hādī (d. 254/868) and 11th imam Ḥasan al-ʻAskarī (d. 260/874), was first cursed by the letter of al-Askarī allegedly sent, and the Shiite followers were ordered to move away from him. Ibn Hilāl refused to accept the ambassadoriality of Muḥammed b. Osman (d. 305/918), the ambassador of the 12th Imam. Thus, he was cursed by Muḥammad al-Mahdī as well. In later periods, Ibn Hilāl was accused of being nāsıbī and ghālī. However, there are also some Shiite scholars who supported (tavthîk) Ibn Hilāl. In the Shi'a tradition, Nāsibism indicated the meaning of hating ʻAli and Ahl al-bayt or feeling anger towards them. Later on, this meaning has been changed into a meaning including the haters of ʻAli and then the Shiʻa Nāsibism is regarded as a position towards Shiʻa outside of Shiʻa. Ghulāt is a form of a belief generally found in the Shi'a tradition. In the belief of Ghulāt, holiness is attributed to the imams. When the Shiite sources are examined, it can be seeb that Ibn Hilāl represents neither a ghālī nor a nāsıbī position. In the Shiʻa, when the narrator leaves his sect, his narrations are evaluated differently. Therefore, among Ibn Hilāl's narrations only those which narrated before he left can be accepted. The likely reason for this attitude can be those narrators such as Ibn Hilāl brought in many narrations to the Shiite hadith literature. Ibn Bābeveyh and Sheikh Sadūk reported many narrations that includes Ibn Hilāl in their report chain (the isnad). Among these narrations, they criticized only one. Again, in the 4th century of Hijrī, Numānī, al-Hazzāz, Ibn Qavlaveyh and Mufīd reported many narrations transmitted by Ibn Hilāl. However, none of them mentioned about the negative perception on Ibn Hilāl in any of these narrations. This shows that Ibn Hilāl was not regarded as nāsıbī or ghālī in the eyes of the these scholars. As regards to, Tūsī, in the 5th century after Hijra, claimed that Ibn Hilāl was a ghālī and he was accused of being an adherent to this religion. He narrated in sum fifty narrations that included Ibn Hilāl in the report chain, but Tūsī criticized only three of them because of including Ibn Hilāl. The reason why Ibn Hilāl was accused of being nāsıbī and ghālī, which Shiʻa deemed the worst, was probably related to the political conditions of that period. On the other hand, there is no report that Ibn Hilāl shared a nāsıbī and ghālī thought or had a tendency towards them. It is obvious that if Ibn Hilâl, who has an important place in the eyes of the Shiite community, does not accept the second ambassador of al-Mahdī, and that this would cause discord among the followers. This complex situation was tried to be remedied by letters alleged to have been written by the imams, cursing Ibn Hilâl and ordering them to stay away from him. Later, Ibn Hilāl was accused of being a nāsıbî or ghālī who expressed the attitudes and thoughts that Shiʻa saw the most distant from him. Sadūk first reported the narration that Ibn Hilāl was Nāsıbî. Tūsī, on the other hand, described Ibn Hilāl as ghālī in the 5th century (after hijra). This study tries to reveal that there is no explicit evidence that proves Ibn Hilāl’s nāsıbī or ghālī position. (shrink)

This study deals with the sceptical arguments by one of the most important figures in the philosophical Sufi tradition (the Akbarian school) and the foremost disciple of Ibn ʿArabī, Ṣadr al‐Dīn al‐Qūnawī. Though not a sceptic in the strict sense, Qūnawī employs sceptical arguments from relativity of rational knowledge and disagreement among philosophers to prove inefficacy of reason and rational procedures of knowledge in terms of achieving certain knowledge of metaphysical matters, namely of God and the ultimate principles of things. (...) The paper questions Qūnawī's implicit assumption that, if there is disagreement on a proposition p, then p is relative and thus cannot provide certain knowledge. It aims to philosophically analyse and assess his scepticism as well as to shed light on the largely unknown terrain of scepticism in the mediaeval Islamic world. (shrink)

Abstractabstract:Adopting a cross-cultural perspective on hierophanies, this article not only explores the fundamental patterns of prophet Muhammad and Buddhas as expositors of cosmic light as interpreted in the Islamic and Buddhist traditions, but it also engages in comparative theological reflection on how Islam and Buddhism use the symbol of light in describing the cosmological and practical dimension of Muhammad's prophetic nature and the revelatory role of the Buddha. Examples are Nūr Muḥammadī, Muhammadan light, and Shin Buddhism's understanding of Amitābha/Amida Buddha (...) as the Buddha of Infinite Light with Śākyamuni, Siddhārtha Gautama, as the narrator of the Pure Land Sutras. This essay considers the role and perception of the Muslim prophet in relation to the role of the Buddhas as a shared motif for building appreciation between Islam and Shin-Buddhism. (shrink)

This paper proposes a Multi-Agent based Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) Framework for the Traveling salesman problem (MAPSOFT). The framework is a deployment of the recently proposed intelligent multi-agent based PSO model by the authors. MAPSOFT is made up of groups of agents that interact with one another in a coordinated search effort within their environment and the solution space. A discrete version of the original multi-agent model is presented and applied to the Travelling Salesman Problem. Based on the simulation results (...) obtained, it was observed that agents retrospectively decide on their next moves based on consistent better fitness values obtained from present and prospective neighborhoods, and by reflecting back to previous behaviors and sticking to historically better results. These overall attributes help enhance the conventional PSO by providing more intelligence and autonomy within the swarm and thus contributed to the emergence of good results for the studied problem. (shrink)

II. ULUSLARARASI TEKİRDAĞ’DA DİNİ VE KÜLTÜREL HAYAT SEMPOZYUMU.

We extended the Barut’s classical model of zitterbewegung from 3+1 dimensional spacetime into 2+1 and 1+1 dimensional spacetimes and discussed the symmetry and integrability properties of the model in 2+1, 1+1 and 3+1 dimensions. In these cases, the free particle current or the velocity of the particle can be decomposed as a constant convection current and polarization currents.In 2+1 dimensional spacetime, a velocity of the particle and spin tensor are dependent to each other and the chirality can not be introduced. (...) The free particle has 7 constants of motion: The momentum three vector, the charge, the energy in proper time, the scalar constant spin or magnetic polarization and the two components of total angular momentum. Two component electric polarizations oscillate with Zitterbewegung frequency.In 1+1 dimensional spacetime we have an independent velocity vector and a scalar spin tensor. The free particle has 5 integrals of motion: The momentum two vector, the charge, the energy in proper time, and the scalar total angular momentum. The normal component of the velocity or the scalar electric polarization oscillates with Zitterbewegung frequency.In 3+1 dimensional spacetime, the particle has an independent velocity vector, spin tensor and chirality. The free particle has 12 integrals of motion: The momentum four vector, the charge, the energy in proper time or mass, the three vector spin or magnetic polarizations and three components of total angular momentum. The parallel component of velocity into momentum and the normal components of the spin tensor or the spin three vector are constants of motion for the free particle. The chirality and electric polarizations oscillate with the Zitterbewegung frequency. The system is superintegrable in all dimensions. (shrink)