It might not be striking that writers expressing the same idea, or a similar reaction to an idea, would use a similar set of words if they were writing in the same language.In the examples to follow, I remain unsure as to whether I should be struck by the similarity or not; it was a nice coincidence at first, a mere "interesting observation" rather than a "striking similarity," from which I could begin an article comparing the poetics of Ibn Sīnā (...) with the aesthetics of Kant. The observation was that three different writers, in reacting to a similarity they observed between Ibn Sīnā and other thinkers in domains related to poetics and/or imagination, used the two words "striking" and "similarity," or at least their... (shrink)

The current study aimed to highlight the factors that may influence teachers' psychological resistance to digital technologies in entrepreneurship and business schools. Theoretically grounded in the diffusion of innovations theory and the theory of planned behavior, the current research investigates teachers' psychological resistance to digital innovation, school culture and climate, and moderation of teacher attitudes toward educational technologies. A cross-sectional field survey of 600 business and entrepreneurship school teachers was conducted in Jordan. In this study, partial least square-structural equation modeling (...) was used to assess the variables' “direct and moderating impacts” using the Smart PLS software 3.0. According to the results, school culture and school innovation climate had a considerable positive impact on teachers' resistance to digital innovation. Additionally, teachers' attitudes toward educational technologies moderated the relationship between study constructs in the framework. The study is a significant advance to the literature related to entrepreneurship, business education, and digital innovation. Several key policy insights and recommendations for further research, as well as theoretical and practical implications, are suggested. (shrink)

科学の発展は我々の暮らしを豊かにし、人類が解決しえなかった多くの問題を解決してきた。しかしそれは同時に、科学では解決できない新たな問題を生み出す歴史でもあった。著者はその最たるものとして原子力をあげ、 望ましい科学のあり方について思索を進めていく。本書は、戦争を否定し平和を希求する科学者の集まり、パグウォッシュ会議の開催に触発されて書かれたもの。だが、会議の姿勢は評価しつつも、科学の発展そのものが文 明や人類を破壊しうるという認識が科学者の側には足らないと厳しく指摘する。二十世紀を代表する批評家が最後の力を振りしぼって遺した警世の書。.

The paper interrogates the status, nature and significance of epistemological relativism as a key element of constructionism and critical realism. It finds that epistemological relativism is espoused by authorities in critical realism and marginalized or displaced in the field of management and organization studies, resulting in forms of analysis that are empirically, but not fully critically, realist. This evaluation prompts reflection on the question of whether, how and with what implications epistemological relativism might be recast at the heart of critical (...) realist studies of management and organization. (shrink)

The third of Berman and Hafner’s early nineties papers on reasoning with legal cases concerned temporal context, in particular the evolution of case law doctrine over time in response to new cases and against a changing background of social values and purposes. In this paper we consider the ways in which changes in case law doctrine can be accommodated in a recently proposed methodology for encapsulating case law theories, and relate these changes the sources of change identified by Berman and (...) Hafner. (shrink)

This volume is the first of a trilogy which investigates, from a broadly realist perspective, the place, and challenges, of the human in contemporary social orders. The authors, all members of the Centre for Social Ontology, ask what is specific about humanity's nature and worth, and what are their main challenges in contemporary societies? Examining the ways in which recent advances in technology threaten to blur and displace the boundaries constitutive of our shared humanity, Realist Responses to Post-Human Society: Ex (...) Machina explores the philosophical and ethical questions raised by these developments, and discusses the dangers posed by the combination of transhumanism with post-humanist social theories and antihumanist practices, institutions and ideologies. (shrink)

The article discusses sexual violence by ISIS against women in Iraq, particularly Yezidi women, against the historical background of broader sexual and gender-based violence. It intervenes in feminist debates about how to approach and analyse sexual and wider gender-based violence in Iraq specifically and the Middle East more generally. Recognizing the significance of positionality, the article argues against dichotomous positions and for the need to look at both macrostructural configurations of power pertaining to imperialism, neoliberalism and globalization on the one (...) hand, and localized expressions of patriarchy, religious interpretations and practices and cultural norms on the other hand. Finally, the article reflects on the question of what a transnational feminist solidarity might look like in relation to sexual violence by ISIS. (shrink)

Many question whether Islam and science can be compatible. In the first six hundred years of Islam, Muslims addressed all fields of knowledge available to them with unprecedented zeal and contributed immensely to the knowledge that became the precursor of the Renaissance in Europe. The Tatar invasion in the thirteenth century and the total destruction of Baghdad, the Muslim capital of knowledge and science, followed by the crusades, the ensuing hostility between East and West, and Western colonialism of Muslim countries (...) led to a distrust of all knowledge emanating from the West. Such distrust closed the doors to ijtihad, a dynamic method in Islamic jurisprudence for addressing change, new demands, and new acquired knowledge, even though the Qur'an challenges Muslims to think, contemplate, understand, comprehend, and examine everything around them—tasks that bring humankind closer to God as they find methods to apply God's laws of justice and equity to the benefit of all humankind. Islam is the religion of yusr (ease) and not ‘usr (hardship). The creation of the world was for human benefit and use. Innovation for such beneficial use and application is a must. (shrink)

Breaking bad news (BBN) to parents whose newborn has a major disease is an ethical dilemma. In Saudi Arabia, BBN about newborns is performed according to the parental preferences that have been reported from non-Arabic/non-Islamic countries. Saudi mothers' preferences about BBN have not yet been studied. Therefore, we aimed to elicit the preferences of Saudi mothers about BBN concerning newborns. We selected a convenience sample of 402 Saudi mothers, aged 18-50 years, who had no previous experience with BBN. We selected (...) them via a simple number-randomization scheme from the premises of a level III Saudi hospital between October of 2009 and January of 2011. We used a hypothetical situation (BBN about trisomy 21) to elicit their preferences about BBN concerning newborns via a structured verbal questionnaire composed of 12 multiple-choice questions. We expressed their preferences as percentages (95% confidence interval), and we used the Kendall's W test (W) to assess the degree of agreement in preferences. The Saudi mothers preferred that BBN be conducted with both parents together (64% [60-69]), albeit with weak levels of agreement (W = 0.29). They showed moderate agreement in their preferences that BBN should be conducted early (79% [75-83], W = 0.48), in detail (81% [77-85], W = 0.52), in person (88% [85-91], W = 0.58), and in a quiet setting (86% [83-90], W = 0.53). With extremely weak agreement, they preferred to have a known person present for support during BBN (56% [51-61], W = 0.01), to have close bodily contact with their babies (66% [61-70], W = 0.10), and to have no another patients present (64% [59-68], W = 0.08). They showed moderate levels of agreement in their desires to detail, in advance, their preferences about process of BBN by giving a reversible, written informed consent that could be utilized for guidance, if needed (80% [76-84], W = 0.36). In our experience, Saudi mothers' preferences about BBN concerning newborns are varied, suggesting that a "one-size-fits-all" approach is inappropriate. A reversible, written informed consent detailing their preferences about BBN that would be kept in their medical records and utilized for guidance, if needed, may be the best solution, given this level of diversity. These findings merit further study. (shrink)

This study investigates the spatial distribution of industrial facilities within Dhi Qar Governorate. By analyzing geographical patterns, the research aims to identify clusters, hotspots, and potential areas for industrial development. The study utilizes geographic information systems (GIS) to visualize and analyze the distribution of industrial establishments across the governorate. The findings contribute to a better understanding of the industrial landscape, informing future planning and decision-making for economic development and resource allocation in Dhi Qar.

Centering on the early Platonic dialogues, this paper delineates the importance of considering Plato’s Lysis’ as rightful inclusion to Jan Szaif’s proposal of “core group” of aporetic dialogue. This paper highlights a synoptic presentation of the development of Lysis’s reception by modern scholars of Plato (Platonic scholars) at the beginning of this discourse to establish a compelling argument for its aporetic nature. It then proceeds with a revisit to Szaif’s article Socrates and the Benefits of Puzzlement. The first section, considering (...) its importance, emphasizes the evident possibility of opening his list of ‘core group’ of aporetic dialogue to Lysis benefitting the said dialogue. This exposition concludes with the philosophical nature of friendship, even love, must neither begin in Plato’s Phaedrus and Symposium nor in Aristotle’s conception of friendship in Nicomachean Ethics. Alternatively, cognizant of the aporetic tradition followed and practiced by Plato, all studies on the said topics may begin with Lysis. (shrink)

This book defines, perhaps for the first time in the history of the intellectual and religious tradition of Islam, the meaning of worldview from the perspective of Islam. The definition is articulated in the gathering together of the fundamental elements in the vision of reality and truth that projects the worldview of Islam into a meaningful whole. This articulation of the definition involves also explanation and contradiction of the challenges to that vision encountered throughout the ages to the present time.

This article deals with the impact of the free, democratic and peaceful accession to power of the Islamic Justice and Development Party (JDP) in Turkey on the Arab world in general and on the Islamic currents active in Arab societies in particular. A main point is looking into how Arab political formations and especially political Islam are trying to make sense out of such recent developments in Turkey as: (1) the fact that traditionally reviled Turkish secularism, Kemalism and westernism could (...) produce a democratic form of political Islam capable of winning free elections and ruling Turkey without a catastrophe befalling the whole polity; and (2) the fact that an Islamic JDP is the most eager proponent of Turkey’s membership in the secular EU, while the traditional staunch military guardian of Turkish secularism is now the main obstructor of the drive for EU membership. (shrink)

This article considers Jack Goody’s studies of Islam in their various contexts. It starts with a consideration of Goody’s comparative historico-anthropological studies of specific topics such as flowers, cuisine, and kinship and the family, and of his studies of wider range and broader import. It analyses the elements and main thrust of his historical approach, paying attention to the conception of comparativism he uses, placing these in the context of current debates on method. It then moves on to Islamic material (...) incorporated into these studies, and seeks to place them in the context of his work overall. Finally, the essay discusses works Goody devoted specifically to Islam and seeks to draw out the relationship between his views of Islamic history and of contemporary Islam and his comparative historical sociology of civilizations, and measures his more recent views of Islam against his overall approach. (shrink)

Practicing Islam in Egypt: Print Media and Islamic Revival By Rock-SingerAaron, xii + 211 pp. Price HB £75.00. EAN 978–1108492058.

The all-too-human proclivity to short-sightedness colludes with political perspectives of the moment, to project a fragmentary image of the present instant into the essence of eternity, and to postu- late Islam as the trans-historical protoplasm in the life of all Muslims. I shall propose to you that this construal of Islam as a culture which in itself explains the affairs of Muslim collectivities and overdetermines their economies, societies, and non-religious cultures, is the fundamental element in the culture of misrecognition that (...) I am address- ing, the condition of possibility for valorising the trope of return. What I do intend to do is to return to the present point in time, and to try and understand why it is that misrecognition is so passionately willed; to probe the conditions for the exceptionalism attributed to Muslim peoples, which places them outside the remit of the historical and sociological understanding and relegates them to ethnological folklore, to consider why it is that I, like many others, have to waste so much of your time on matters that ought to be taken for granted. (shrink)

This book attempts to gain a new insight into the world of Philosophy.

Sufi group mainly dictates its followers to distance themselves from worldy affairs and to live in religious seclusion. This article offers a distinct perspective on the study of sufism through examining the political activities of the sufi group the Tarekat Qa>diriyah wa Naqsyabandiyah of Cukir in Indonesia and the group’s political patron, the Partai Persatuan Pembangunan. The article benefits form a French philosopher Michel Foucault’s concept of geneology and the notion of knowledge to better comprehend the nature of political activism (...) of a sufi group. It further argues that basic concept of student and master relationship in Sufism is explaining the politics of sufism in contemporary Indonesia. The mutual relation between leaders of the sufi group and the PPP has facilitated the crossing boundaries of Sufi basic principle of non-participatory politics. (shrink)

The scholars agree that the Prophet did not compose even one line of poetry before revelation was given to him or thereafter. They also agree that he was prohibited from doing this as a way of closing the door to any ambiguity about the Generous Qur’an, such that no one would confuse it with poetry. Despite there being no rational or scriptural proof for the impossibility of his reciting the poetry composed by others or mentioning verses of poetry composed by (...) others, in its proper meter, the scholars differed about whether these things occurred historically. Many scholars stated that this did not occur and even blatantly said that if he wished to use a line of poetry as an example he wouldn’t complete the line. And if he did complete a line of poetry as an example, he wouldn’t say it in its proper meter. This claim spread far and wide among many of the linguists, exegetes, and historians. They cited examples of this, and they provided as proof many reports such that this became a core axiom for them. If, however, they came upon a report that indicates that the Prophet recited poetry in meter form, they sought out some type of figurative interpretation. They did all of this without having first grounded their axiom in any type of proof and without providing any evidence for the correctness of the figurative interpretations that they put forward. Due to the fact that this claim was not built upon a full and complete gathering of all of the reports related to it, nor was it based upon a proper critique according to the methodology of hadith scholars, many problems have arisen in the conceptualization of what occurred historically that are referenced in hadith literature. It is for this reason that this study pays attention to gathering all of the reports related to these incidents, so that we can reach a clear and precise historical conceptualization of this question. Beyond this, it seeks to evaluate the positions of many of the linguists, exegetes, and historians based upon the aforementioned findings and comparing their historical conceptualization with the conclusions mentioned above. Finally, it brings forth the major problems said scholars fell into based upon their not having gathered all of the hadith reports and not having analyzed them according to the methodology of hadith scholars. (shrink)

عجيب أمر الفقهاء..وعجيب أولئك الذين أطلقوا على أنفسهم رجال الدين..ضلوا الطريق إلى الله وأضلوا، سرقوا الله من جوهر مكنونه وعظمة أسراره، جردوه من أسراره القدسية، نزعوا عنه سيم الألوهية، صوروه على أنه قاطع طريق، أو فى أحسن الأحوال رب ديوث!!! لا يغار على عرضه!! ولا يأبه لعياله..ولا يهتم لمن أوكل إليهم الخلافة، بل جردوه عن كل شىء...عن الربوبية والألوهية والتقديس. قدموا صورة مغلوطة تنافى الله وتضاده، ولكنها ياللأسف.. ماقُدمت إلا باسم الله، قدموا أنفسهم على أنهم حماة الشريعة، فإذ فجأة نجد (...) ألا شريعة لديهم ولا عقيدة ولا دين!! هى محض قشور قشرية لا لب لها ولا مضمون، قشريات جمعوها يُمنة ويُسرة، قدموها على أنها الدين..وصوروا أنفسهم الهداة المهديين، هم ملاك الحقيقة المطلقة، تلك المولود البغيض المشوه الذى لا وجه له ولا عينين، لا صورة له تشبه أبيه أو مصدره، الله رحمة ولكنهم أبوه إلا جلادًا...رحيمًا جعلوه جبارًا فى الأرض، مصلحًا صوروه ديوثًا...انقلبوا على الله واستبدلوه..ذهبوا ليدلوا الناس عليه فانقلبوا بدونه...هدموا جمهورية السلام والعدل والرحمة، وأقاموا على أنقاضها جمهورية القتل والسلب والسبى والهدر المتعمد لكرامة الإنسان، فلبئس ما استبدلوا به الله... ولبئس ما صوروا به ربًا ملك فعدل، وقدر فعفى، وحاسب فرحم، فكانت تلك الجمهورية مسخًا مشوهًا من جمهورية الله.... (shrink)

Matter and Form explores the relationship between natural science and political philosophy from the classical to contemporary eras, taking an interdisciplinary approach to the philosophic understanding of the structure and process of the natural world and its impact on the history of political philosophy. It illuminates the importance of philosophic reflection on material nature to moral and political theorizing, mediating between the sciences and humanities and making a contribution to ending the isolation between them.

This paper presents a general framework for philosophical counseling founded upon the distinction between philosophical discourse and philosophy as a lived experience. Clients enter counseling, usually, philosophically unsophisticated, but with a set of perspectives and a predicament. I outline the two general processes of philosophical counseling that address such a reported predicament.The first process---critique---involves a critical examination of the client’s philosophical perspectives, as they are related to the reported predicament. Through the use of the Socratic method, the counselor attempts to (...) examine the relation, meaning, implications, etc., of such perspectives. This, I argue, leads to a destabilization of the client, where previously unquestioned beliefs and values become doubtful. As such, a second process---creation---is needed in order to overcome the destabilization of the initial process. For this process to succeed, I argue, philosophical counseling must avoid the problem of suggestion by not relying on any first-order philosophical assumptions. (shrink)