Public entities around the world are increasingly deploying artificial intelligence and algorithmic decision-making systems to provide public services or to use their enforcement powers. The rationale for the public sector to use these systems is similar to private sector: increase efficiency and speed of transactions and lower the costs. However, public entities are first and foremost established to meet the needs of the members of society and protect the safety, fundamental rights, and wellbeing of those they serve. Currently AI systems (...) are deployed by the public sector at various administrative levels without robust due diligence, monitoring, or transparency. This paper critically maps out the challenges in procurement of AI systems by public entities and the long-term implications necessitating AI-specific procurement guidelines and processes. This dual-prong exploration includes the new complexities and risks introduced by AI systems, and the institutional capabilities impacting the decision-making process. AI-specific public procurement guidelines are urgently needed to protect fundamental rights and due process. (shrink)

Cosmetic surgery and techno-medical manufacturing of the body are booming. The transformative potential of cosmetic surgery is used to shape and enhance physical appearance, gender identity and sexuality. Among the cosmetic procedures that have become popular is intimate surgery for women, which is oriented towards an ideal shape of the vulva. Almost in parallel with this trend, vulva-positive websites highlighting the diversity of the vulva are becoming ever more widespread in order to enlighten women and contribute to women’s health. This (...) Art-Science Interaction consists of two parts that are in conversation with one another. Artist Merve Şahinol presents in her part “VULVA STUDY. hidden but not undiscovered” photographs of clay vulvas she modeled during therapy sessions to use in talks with women who are challenged by their own perception of their body image. She shares her thoughts and experience of the modeling and learning process in form of prose. In “Manufacturing the Vulva”, sociologist Melike Şahinol explores the rhizomatic dilemma between self/body awareness and empowerment, and the normalization and beauty constraints of manufacturing the vulva. This contribution emphasizes the awareness of the vulva as well as the lack of specific analyses of post-surgery embodiment experiences that include the “new” corporeal experience of sexuality and the fact that these experiences in general have been addressed but not sufficiently analyzed. (shrink)

Uzak doğu toplumlarının tarihinde yabancı dinlere karşı diğer toplumların tarihine nazaran daha esnek ve senkretik bir yaklaşım benimsenmiş olduğu kabul edilir. Bu coğrafyadaki topluluklar yeni gelen dinleri genellikle yumuşak güç kullanarak dönüştürüp kendi benliğine uygun hale getirmiştir. Budizm’in Çin’e, ardından Japonya’ya gelişi ve sonrasında bu toplulukların rengine boyanması bu esnek ve senkretik yaklaşımın birçok örneğinden biridir. Ayrıca Çin’de Konfüçyanist, Taoist ve Budist dini geleneklerinin üçünün bir arada uygulanmasına yönelik teori ve pratiklerin ortaya çıkmış olması da bu yaklaşımın göstergesidir. Aynı şekilde (...) Japonya’da yüzyıllar boyunca Şintoizm ve Budizmin birlikte uygulanması, Şinto kamileri ile Budist Buddha ve bodhisatvalarının aynı yüce varlıklar olarak kabul edilmesi de aynı bağlamda karşılaşılan birincil örneklerdendir. Fakat yabancı dinlere yönelik bu esnek ve senkretik yaklaşımın istisnaları da yok değildir. Bu istisnalardan biri Tokugava shoğunluğu döneminde ‘yabancı din’ Hristiyanlığa yönelik yaklaşım ve politikalar sonucunda ortaya çıkmıştır. Shoğunluğun Hristiyanlık öğretisine ve yerli ve yabancı Hristiyanlara karşı peyderpey sertleşen ve kapsamı genişleyen agresif politikaları Japon tarihinde örneğine az rastlanılan ‘yer altına inmiş din’, ‘gizlenen cemaat’ olgusunu ortaya çıkarmıştır. Shoğunluğun Hristiyanlığa yönelik sert politikaları ve yasakları Japon Hristiyanlarını inançlarını gizleyerek yaşamaya itmiş ve Japon Hristiyanlar Tokugava şoğunluğu sonuna değin iki buçuk asır boyunca inançlarını saklayarak varlıklarını devam ettirmiştir. Tokugava döneminin sonlanmasıyla birlikte Hristiyanlığa yönelik devlet politikası değişip misyon hareketlerine izin verilmesinin ardından Hristiyan kiliseleri Japonya’ya tekrardan gelmiş, fakat iki buçuk asır boyunca inançlarını gizli olarak devam ettiren Japon Hristiyanlarından bir grup Hristiyan kiliseleri ile birleşmeyi reddetmiş ve ayrı bir cemaat olarak günümüze değin varlığını devam ettiren Kakure Kirishitan cemaatini oluşturmuştur. Japon toplum ve kültürünün temel özelliklerinden biri olan karşılaştığı ‘yabancı’ ve yeni unsurları adapta etme-uyarlama-dönüştürme eğiliminin bir örneği olarak Kakure Kirishitan cemaati ve kutsal metinleri Tenchi bu çalışmanın ana konusunu oluşturmaktadır. Çalışmanın temel kaynağı ‘Budist Kitab-ı Mukaddes’ olarak da isimlendirilebilecek olan Kakure Kirishitan cemaatinin kutsal metni Tenchi’dir. Temel iddiası ise Kakure Kirishitan cemaatinin Hristiyanlığa yönelik sert ve acımasız devlet politikaları karşısında varlığını devam ettirebilmesini mümkün kılan temel etkenin Japon kimlik ve kültüründe var olan uyarlama eğilimi olduğu ve Kakure Kirishitan cemaatinin kutsal metni olarak kabul edilen Tenchi’nin de Budizm başta olmak üzere Japon din ve geleneklerinden belirli öğelerin Hristiyanlık öğretileriyle birleştirilerek temelde -zorunluluk arz eden şart ve koşullar yadsınmamak kaydıyla- bu uyarlama eğiliminin sonucu olarak ortaya çıktığıdır. Sonuç olarak Japon toplum ve kültürünün genel kimlik ve davranış tarzına ters bir şekilde dine yönelik uygulanan yasak ve baskı politikası Japon tarihinde örneğine az rastlanan yer altına inmiş din-cemaat olarak Kakure Kirishitan cemaatini ortaya çıkarmış ve ironik bir şekilde bu cemaat varlığını temelde Japon kimlik ve kültüründe bulunan bu esnek ve senkretik eğilim sayesinde devam ettirebilmiştir. (shrink)

The COVID-19 pandemic affected education institutions just like several other sectors. These institutions, which are among the places where people are found collectively, were the first places that were closed for precaution. Some problems of distance education conducted in online platforms which were assumed upon the termination of face-to-face education emerged in time. Especially in this urgent solution, where the workload of teachers has increased, some application difficulties have been identified in foreign language teaching. From this point of view, considering (...) the foreign language education policy and planning, this study deals with the distance education practices of English teachers, the difficulties they encounter in the process, and their solution proposals. The research, which was designed as a qualitative study, was conducted with a case study design. The participants of the research are 13 English teachers working at the secondary school level in different districts of Northern Cyprus determined by the homogeneous sampling method. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews developed by the researchers. The qualitative data were analyzed with descriptive analysis. As a result of the interviews with the teachers, it has been determined that there are problems related to technology, students, online classes, and planning in English teaching carried out with distance education applications. Accordingly, the teachers offered their recommendations that could be a solution to the existing problems. (shrink)

Sosyal politikalar dezavantajlı gruplara fayda sağlamak amacıyla oluşturulmaktadır. Ancak bazı durumlarda bu politikalara duyulan güven düzeyinin düşük olması bir takım olumsuz sonuçlar doğurabilmektedir. Zihinsel engelli çocuğa sahip ebeveynlerin yaşadıkları ölüm kaygısı bu olumsuz sonuca bir örnek teşkil etmektedir. Bu noktadan hareketle çalışmada zihinsel engelli çocuğu olan annelerin sosyal politikalara duydukları güvenin çocuklarından önce ölme kaygısına etkileri araştırılmıştır. Araştırmada yalnızca zihinsel engelli çocuğu anneler ile görüşülmesinin temel sebebi, Türkiye İstatistik Kurumu (2011) verilerine göre zihinsel engelli çocuğun bakımını yüksek bir oranla (%81) (...) annelerin üstlenmesidir. Ayrıca ülkemizde engel türlerinin oranları incelendiğinde, yine Türkiye İstatistik Kurumu (TÜİK, 2011) verilerine göre en büyük grubu %29,2 ile zihinsel engelliler teşkil etmektedir.Çalışmada Kasım 2017 - Ocak 2018 tarihleri arasında, İstanbul ilinde ikamet eden beş anne ile yapılan ve yarı yapılandırılmış görüşme formu ile elde edilen verilerden ulaşılan bulgular sunulmuştur. Görüşmeler esnasında ses kaydı alınmış, sonra yazıya geçirilmiş ve ardından sorular temelinde oluşturulan başlıklar altında veriler değerlendirilmiştir. Sosyal politikalara güven eksikliğinin zihinsel engelli çocuğu olan annelerin ölüm kaygılarının nedenleri arasında olduğu; çocuklarından önce ölme korkusu nedeniyle de “Çocuğumu benden sonraya bırakma Allah’ım” diye dua ettikleri tespit edilmiştir. Kaygı veren bu durumun temel sebepleri üzerinde durulmuş, sosyal politikalar ile ilişkisi incelenerek sorunun çözümü ve giderilmesi için çeşitli öneriler getirilmiştir. (shrink)

The idea and practice of art, which started to change in the modern period, continued its metamorphosis in the post-modern period. Contemporary art, which was handled by many philosophers and thinkers, was called trans-aesthetic by Jean Baudrillard. According to Baudrillard, art has lost its meaning by penetrating every aspect of life in the post-modern age. In other words, art has become the transfer of images that mean nothing by becoming trans-aesthetic. At this stage, no object can be said to be (...) beautiful or ugly. (shrink)

Destân-ı İbrâhîm, Anadolu İslamî Türk edebiyatının teşekkül devresine ait manzum hikâyelerden biridir. Mesnevi nazım şekliyle yazılan bu eser, Hz. Peygamber’in, cariyesi Mâriye bint Şem‘ûn el-Kıbtiyye’den (öl. 16/637) dünyaya gelen oğlu İbrahim’in (öl. 10/632 [?]) vefatını konu edinmektedir. Eserin, yurt içi ve yurt dışı kütüphanelerinde çok sayıda yazma nüshası bulunmaktadır. Bu durum eserin halk tarafından sevildiğinin, yazıldığı dönemden itibaren ilgi ve alaka gördüğünün en önemli göstergesidir. Bu nüshalardan bazıları farklı araştırmacılar tarafından incelenmiş ve yayınlanmıştır. Bu çalışmada eserin daha önce herhangi bir (...) çalışmaya konu edilmemiş, Ankara Millî Kütüphanedeki 06 Mil Yz A 2664/7 numaralı nüshası incelenmiştir. Zikredilen nüsha, eserin şimdiye kadar tespit edilmiş en hacimli nüshasıdır. Bu yönüyle hem daha önce incelenen nüshalardaki kurgu ve tahkiye problemini ortadan kaldırmakta hem de şaire dair yeni bilgiler ihtiva etmektedir. Halkı eğitmek, dinî bilinci yerleştirmek maksadıyla yazılan bu eserde, hedef kitleye ve yazılış gayesine uygun bir şekilde, tasannudan uzak, sade ve samimi bir üslup tercih edilmiştir. Eser, sohbet meclislerinde bir toplantı süresince okunup tamamlanmaya uygun hacmiyle de dönemin ihtiyaçlarını karşılamaktadır. Türk düşünce tarihi açısından oldukça ehemmiyetli olan eser, telif edildiği dönemin dil özelliklerini günümüze aktarması açısından da kıymetlidir. Eser, yazıldığı dönem olan Eski Anadolu Türkçesinin ses ve şekil özelliklerini taşımaktadır. Dil ve kültür tarihimize ışık tutan bu eserin, yeni ve muhkem nüshalarının tespiti alana dair çalışmalara mühim katkılar sağlayacaktır. Çalışma, giriş ve üç bölüm şeklinde düzenlenmiştir. Girişte, eserin yazıldığı döneme ve müellifine dair bilgiler verilmiştir. “Eser Hakkında Genel Bilgiler” başlığını taşıyan birinci bölüm iki alt başlığa ayrılmış; önce eserin dil, şekil ve söyleyiş özellikleri incelenmiş, ardından eserin muhtevasına yer verilmiştir. İkinci bölüm çalışmanın konusunu teşkil eden Ankara Millî Kütüphanedeki 06 Mil Yz A 2664/7 numaralı nüshaya hasredilmiştir. “Nüsha Hakkında Genel Bilgiler” başlığını taşıyan bu bölüm kendi içinde iki alt başlığa ayrılarak önce nüshanın ayrıntılı tavsifi yapılmış, ardından bu nüshanın literatüre katkılarına temas edilmiştir. Üçüncü ve son bölümde bahsi geçen nüshanın transkripsiyonlu metnine yer verilmiştir. (shrink)

Eğitim; bireylere hayatları boyunca ihtiyaç duyacakları bilgi ve becerileri sistematik bir şekilde öğretmektir. Din eğitimi ise bireyin mensubu olduğu dinin inanç, ibadet, muamelat ve bu dinin arzuladığı ahlaki öğretiler hakkında bilgi sahibi olup bunları uygulamasının beklenmesidir. Din eğitimi bireylerin ihtiyaçları ve gelişimsel basamağına uygun olarak verilmektedir. Bireyin yaşı, zihinsel bilgi basamağı, cinsiyeti, eğitim durumu vb. özellikler alacağı eğitimi etkilemektedir. Engel durumu da bireyin sahip olduğu özelliklerden biridir. Bu durum bireyin özelliği olmakla birlikte bireyi sınırlandırır. Bireyin bu sınırlılıkları psikolojik, fiziksel ve (...) sosyal olarak bütün özelliklerini etkiler. Engelli Bireylerin Din ve Değerler Eğitimi adlı eserde bireylerin sahip oldukları bu sınırlılıkları göz önünde bulundurarak engelli bireylerin din eğitimi açısından ihtiyaçları belirtilmiştir. Eserde bireyler ile yapılmış olan görüşmelere yer verilmiş ve bireylerin dini konulara bakış açıları yansıtılmıştır. Engelli bireylere din eğitimi verilirken dikkat edilmesi gereken hususlar belirtilmiştir. İslam’ın, Kur’ an- ı Kerim’in ve Hz. Muhammed’ in engelli bireylere bakışı ve bireylerin bulundukları durumlara örnekler verilmiştir. (shrink)

Background. Attending to goal-relevant information can leave us metaphorically ‘blind’ or ‘deaf’ to the next relevant information while searching among distracters. This temporal cost lasting for about a half a second on the human selective attention has been long explored using the attentional blink paradigm. Although there is evidence that certain visual stimuli relating to one’s area of expertise can be less susceptible to attentional blink effects, it remains unexplored whether the dynamics of temporal selective attention vary with expertise and (...) objects types in the auditory modality. Methods. Using the auditory version of the attentional blink paradigm, the present study investigates whether certain auditory objects relating to musical and perceptual expertise could have an impact on the transient costs of selective attention. In this study, expert cellists and novice participants were asked to first identify a target sound, and then to detect instrumental timbres of cello or organ, or human voice as a second target in a rapid auditory stream. Results. The results showed moderate evidence against the attentional blink effect for voices independent of participants’ musical expertise. Experts outperformed novices in their overall accuracy levels of target identification and detection, reflecting a clear benefit of musical expertise. Importanly, the musicianship advantage disappeared when the human voices served as the second target in the stream. Discussion. The results are discussed in terms of stimulus salience, the advantage of voice processing, as well as perceptual and musical expertise in relation to attention and working memory performances. (shrink)

When one attempts to understand and grasp the seemingly simple fact of pain within the realm of human being, it may be inevitable for one to be caught by the question “why do I suffer from pain?” This question, like every other “why” question, belongs to a basic human attitude which cannot accept what is as it is. Considering pain as a manifestation of such an attitude is also determining it as intolerable and reading the experience of pain as an (...) act of rebellion. However, in order to grasp and make sense of the experience of pain, one should first determine against what this act of rebellion is. To this end, this paper tries to articulate the experience of pain within the Hegelian system by focusing on pain’s relation to pleasure, life, death, desire and self-consciousness and infers that any form of reaction to pain is an act of rebellion against death. (shrink)

In the words of Robert Allinson, people are reminded of the generalized folk saying that every Chinese person is a Confucian, a Taoist, or a Buddhist. Confucius's teachings influenced later Chinese society on dramatic level. The Confucians used the term Tao in the sense of social order, and as a foundational ethical principle. Confucius used the term te to signify the virtue in the sense of correct living according to Tao, the right way. Wu‐wei is the ability to act with (...) minimum effort by going with the natural flow of things, in short, being in tune with Tao and its expression as Te. Despite Buddhism having stricter discipline and more profound doctrines, in the eyes of the Han Chinese the points of contact were so numerous that Buddhism was but another sect of religious Taoism. (shrink)

Challenging the fashionable belief that the Constitution should be interpreted in relation to the times, the distinguished contributors to Our Peculiar Security argue that the Constitution has a dual character. On the one hand it is law, in a binding and judicially enforceable sense. On the other hand, it is a decidedly political document.

A version of this op-ed appeared in print on May 10, 2015, on page SR9 of the New York edition of The New York Times with the headline : “Rhythms of the Brain”. It is also online here. IN 1890, the American psychologist William James famously likened our conscious experience to the flow of a stream. “A ‘river' or a ‘stream' are the metaphors by which it is most naturally described,” he wrote. “In talking of it hereafter, let's call it (...) the stream of thought, consciousness, or subjective life.” - Biologie – Nouvel article. (shrink)

Grodzinsky's localization claim can be questioned on empirical grounds. The Trace Deletion Hypothesis fails to account for a number of comprehension facts in Broca's aphasia and conduction aphasics show similar comprehension patterns. Frontoparietal systems are recruited during sentence comprehension only under conditions of increased processing load and/or attentional demands.

To what extent is the neural organization of language dependent on factors specific to the modalities in which language is perceived and through which it is produced? That is, is the left-hemisphere dominance for language a function of a linguistic specialization or a function of some domain-general specialization(s), such as temporal processing or motor planning? Investigations of the neurobiology of signed language can help answer these questions. As with spoken languages, signed languages of the deaf display complex grammatical structure but (...) are perceived and produced via radically different modalities. Thus, by mapping out the neurological similarities and differences between signed and spoken language, it is possible to identify modality-specific contributions to brain organization for language. Research to date has shown a significant degree of similarity in the neurobiology of signed and spoken languages, suggesting that the neural organization of language is largely modality-independent. (shrink)

To what extent is the neural organization of language dependent on factors specific to the modalities in which language is perceived and through which it is produced? That is, is the left-hemisphere dominance for language a function of a linguistic specialization or a function of some domain-general specialization, such as temporal processing or motor planning? Investigations of the neurobiology of signed language can help answer these questions. As with spoken languages, signed languages of the deaf display complex grammatical structure but (...) are perceived and produced via radically different modalities. Thus, by mapping out the neurological similarities and differences between signed and spoken language, it is possible to identify modality-specific contributions to brain organization for language. Research to date has shown a significant degree of similarity in the neurobiology of signed and spoken languages, suggesting that the neural organization of language is largely modality-independent. (shrink)

Bu çalışmada, Almanya’da İslamofobi’nin artışında etkenler tespit edilmekte, bu etkenlerden biri olarak görülen Neo-selefî yapıların bu etkideki rolü analiz edilmektedir. İslamofobi, İslam dininden ve Müslümanlardan korkma, nefret etme, endişe duyma veya önyargılı olma olarak tanımlanabilir. Müslümanlardan korkma veya Müslümanlara düşmanlık besleme anlamında İslamofobi’nin kökenleri İslam’ın ilk dönemlerine kadar uzanmaktadır. Tarihi kökenlere bakıldığında bu düşmanlığın Kudüs’ün, Endülüs’ün ve Hristiyan dünyanın hüküm sürdüğü diğer toprakların Müslümanlar tarafından fethedilme süreçlerine kadar gittiği gözlemlenmektedir. Bu çalışmada ise son 20-30 yıllık süreç içerisinde görülen İslamofobi’nin artışındaki (...) etkenlere odaklanılmıştır. Burada dönüm noktasını Amerika’da bir grup terörist tarafından gerçekleştirilen 11 Eylül 2001 saldırıları oluşturmaktadır. Bu saldırı, İslamofobi endüstrisi tarafından bütün Müslümanların terörizm ile ilişkilendirilmesine sebebiyet vermiştir. Almanya, İslamofobi’nin en belirgin şekilde arttığı ülkelerden biridir. İslamofobi’nin artışı, Müslüman toplulukların günlük yaşamlarında karşılaştıkları ayrımcılık ve dışlanmayı artırırken, toplumsal uyum ve entegrasyon çabalarını zayıflatmaktadır. Bu olgunun Almanya’daki etkilerini anlamak, sadece Müslüman toplulukların karşılaştıkları zorlukları değil, aynı zamanda toplumun geneline yayılan etkileri de ortaya koymak açısından önemlidir. Bu çalışma ile amaçlanan, batılı ülkeler genelinde İslamofobi’nin artışındaki etkileri tespit ederken, özellikle Almanya ölçeğinde bu etkenler içerisinde yer aldığını düşündüğümüz Neo-selefî grupların nefret ve şiddet içeren eylem ve söylemlerinin bu artıştaki etkisinin tespit edilmesidir. Bu selefî söylemlerin kelâmî bağlamı da konu çerçevesinde önem arz etmektedir. Neo-selefî grupların söylem, eylem ve faaliyetlerinin, batılı ülkelerde yaşayan yerel halklar nezdinde nasıl karşılandığı, korku ve endişe uyandırıp uyandırmadığı, Müslümanların ötekileştirilip dışlanarak potansiyel bir düşman olarak algılanıp algılanmadığı gibi hususlar analiz edilmeye çalışılmıştır. Bu çalışmada, literatür taraması ve analitik yöntemler kullanılmıştır. İslamofobi, Selefîlik ve Neo-selefîlik kavramları kelâmî perspektifle detaylı bir şekilde ele alınmış, sonrasında ise İslamofobi’nin artışındaki temel etkenler tespit edilmeye çalışılmıştır. Tespit edilen etkenlerin analiz ve değerlendirmesi yapıldıktan sonra, özel olarak Almanya’da faaliyet gösteren radikal Neo-selefî grupların liderlerinin / vaizlerinin söylemleri çerçevesinde, toplumda bu gruplara yönelik algı tespit edilmeye çalışılmış ve bu olumsuz İslam imajının İslamofobi’nin artışındaki etkileri ortaya konulmuştur. Çalışmada, Almanya’da Neo-selefî grupların söylem ve faaliyetlerinin, İslamofobi’nin artışında önemli bir rol oynadığı tespit edilmiştir. Neo- selefî yapıların radikal ve dışlayıcı söylemleri, Almanya’da yaşayan Müslümanların toplumsal entegrasyonunu zorlaştırmakta ve yerel halk arasında Müslümanlara yönelik korku ve önyargıları beslemektedir. Özellikle Pierre Vogel ve Hasan Dabbağ gibi Neo-Selafi vaizlerin, sosyal medya ve diğer platformlar üzerinden yürüttükleri nefret söylemleri, Almanya’da İslamofobi’nin artmasına katkıda bulunmaktadır. Bu durum, Müslümanların genel olarak terörizmle ilişkilendirilmesine ve toplumsal kutuplaşmanın artmasına neden olmaktadır. (shrink)

There is little doubt that predictive coding is an important mechanism in language processing–indeed, in information processing generally. However, it is less clear whether the action system is the source of such predictions during perception. Here I summarize the computational problem with motor prediction for perceptual processes and argue instead for a dual-stream model of predictive coding.

Volume 27, Issue 2, June 2020, Page 179-184.

In the verbal domain, there is only very weak evidence favoring the view that working memory is an active state of long-term memory. We strengthen existing evidence by reviewing two recent fMRI studies of verbal working memory, which clearly demonstrate activation in the superior temporal lobe, a region known to be involved in processing speech during comprehension tasks.

There has been much scholarly attention given to the role of women in the labor market throughout the years. While there are plenty of evaluations of ideas and perspectives regarding work-life concepts, there is limited understanding regarding the theoretical foundation of work-life concerns specifically about mothers. This study aims to provide an overview of theories used to investigate the work-life issues of working mothers. The data were collected from the Web of Science database. A total of 63 research studies examining (...) the work-life challenges faced by employed women were evaluated based on theoretical frameworks. It was seen that identity theory and gender perspective are dominant perspectives in the current literature. In addition, the prevailing work-life perspectives adopted in the studies are work-life balance and work-life conflict. The study offers a detailed examination of the various theoretical perspectives employed in understanding the work-life difficulties encountered by employed mothers. (shrink)

There are two basic paradigms in social sciences. The first of these is positivism, which is based on explanation-oriented thought; the other is the understanding/interpretive paradigm that emerged as an alternative to positivism. As a theory of meaning that finds its place in many socio-cultural fields, the hermeneutic approach is among the paradigms based on understanding/interpretation. The hermeneutic approach appears at the point of comprehending the invisible, beyond the observable. In this context, examining Mevlevi Rites in a hermeneutical context as (...) a part of Turkish culture from a socio-cultural perspective is important in terms of revealing the meaning of the Rites. The Mevlevi order is based on the principle of unity of exictence in sufi thought and at the same time it is based on an esoteric belief system. In this sense, Mevlevism and Mevlevi Rites, which reflect the belief system mentioned, have meanings beyond the obvious. Particularly, music, which is the dominant element in the ceremony, draws attention as a character that has the capacity to direct the performance. In this direction, the performances during the ritual start with music and the continuity of the ritual is ensured by being managed with music. Therefore, in Mevlevi order, music serves as a tool that accompanies ecstasy. Every movement, every practice, and every stage, every phenomenon and every act of the Mevlevi Rites, which is an integral part of the performance, contains metaphorical meanings. In this context, in the research, which is limited to the theological dimension of the hermeneutic paradigm, the spiritual meanings of the Mevlevi rites were determined by the literature study, the documents related to the subject were examined, the descriptive analysis of the data obtained was made and the findings were revealed. (shrink)

Models of both speech perception and speech production typically postulate a processing level that involves some form of phonological processing. There is disagreement, however, on the question of whether there are separate phonological systems for speech input versus speech output. We review a range of neuroscientific data that indicate that input and output phonological systems partially overlap. An important anatomical site of overlap appears to be the left posterior superior temporal gyrus. We then present the results of a new event‐related (...) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment in which participants were asked to listen to and then (covertly) produce speech. In each participant, we found two regions in the left posterior superior temporal gyrus that responded both to the perception and production components of the task, suggesting that there is overlap in the neural systems that participate in phonological aspects of speech perception and speech production. The implications for neural models of verbal working memory are also discussed in connection with our findings. (shrink)

Hans Belting, _Florence and Baghdad: Renaissance Art and Arab Science_, trans. Deborah Lucas Schneider (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011), 303 pp.

Contemporary Arabic speculative fiction, particularly following the Arab Spring uprisings, is often interpreted as part of an emerging trend of Arab dystopias responding to political upheaval. These texts' ecological concerns, which produce diverse conceptions of futurity, are understudied. This article examines how urban futures are envisioned in an Egyptian speculative fiction text, Ahmed Naji's _Istikhdām al-ḥayāh_ (2014; _Using Life_, 2017). Putting _Using Life_ in dialogue with discussions on Gulf futurism and Arabfuturisms, the article first examines the text's depiction of hegemonic (...) techno-futurist visions, aimed at manifesting a global utopian future through urban design and development projects. The author argues that this futurist discourse, which has affinities with Gulf futurism, operates through the dual enframing of nature and history, and then demonstrates how the text resists this techno-futurist vision through an assemblage aesthetics that echoes Sulaiman Majali's Arabfuturism(s) manifesto. The novel's assemblage aesthetics, which is central to its conception of counter-futures, redefines the human relationship to urban ecologies and to literature through an emphasis on embodiment. (shrink)

Teknoloji, bireyleri ve toplumları etkileyen önemli bir unsurdur. Buna bağlı olarak gelişen sosyal medyanın bugün hayatımızda kapsadığı alan yadsınamaz bir gerçeklik teşkil etmektedir. Bu alan her yeni kuşakla birlikte daha da büyüyerek etkilerini göstermektedir. Bu dijital ortam; öğrenmelerin, taklit etmelerin, rol model almaların ve hedeflerin kaynağı hâline gelmiştir. Sosyal medyanın yoğun kullanımı her alanda olduğu gibi bireylerdeki inanç, tutum ve dini değerlerin şekillenmesinde de önemli bir rol oynamaktadır. Bu bağlamda, özellikle son dönemde din ile sosyal medya konularına odaklanan çalışmaların arttığı (...) görülmektedir. Bu nedenle, sosyal medya kullanımının, dini düşünce ve ahlaki tutumlardaki dönüşümünü problem edinen ve bunun giderilmesinde din eğitiminin önemini ele alan Süleyman Gümrükçüoğlu’nun Din Eğitiminin Sosyal Medya Kullanımına Etkisi adlı eseri incelenmiştir. (shrink)

This study aims to explore the factors contributing to the perceived preparedness of graduate students for responsible conduct of research (RCR). A convergent mixed design was used, and both interview and quantitative data were collected, analyzed, and integrated to understand the role of individual and institutional factors in the perceived RCR preparedness of graduate students. Both interview and quantitative data converge on the role of mentor instruction and institutional policies in developing RCR preparedness. The findings also suggested that greater exposure (...) of students to ethical norms and practices is critical in nurturing RCR. (shrink)

Ahmed Mâhir, who was born in Kastamonu in 1860-70, is one of the last period Ottoman scholars and is known by the penname "Ballıkızâde". He lived in the 19th century, during the Constitutional Monarchy period when the West progressed in many directions and the Ottoman Empire began to lose land alongside its reforms. After taking lessons from the scholar Ahmed Hicâbî, he also gave lectures and educated many students, and taught tafsir and theology for thirteen years at Daru'l-Fünûn Faculty of (...) Theology and Medresetü'l-Vâizîn. In addition to this, the scholar, who has served as a member of the Supreme Court, a judge, and a deputy, also appears as a political personality. Mâhir, who has four published works, is one of the important personalities that Kastamonu raised in religious, political, and literary fields. In this study, the Constitutional Era and the position of the science of tafsir in this period are discussed. Secondly, after transferring information about Ahmed Mâhir's life, his exegesis method on the works of "Mu'cizât-ı Kur'âniyye" and "al-Fâtiha fî Tefsîri'l-Fâtiha" was examined. The qualitative research method and document analysis technique wasused for this study. In addition, the data were analyzed with the help of description, sampling and association techniques. The fact that Ahmed Mâhir has both a political and religious personality and that we have four works about him today makes it important to research him. In this context, the study aims to reveal Ahmed Mâhir's exegesis based on his works. A doctoral thesis on him, in which his mystical aspect was emphasized, and an article by the same person, again, two master's theses were made about the work he wrote in the field of Sufism. Some sources provide concise information about his life and works, and brief information given in some biographical or literature studies. But his works named "Mu'cizât-ı Kur'âniyye" and "al-Fâtiha fî Tefsîri'l-Fâtiha" have not been studied academically. This situation made this study important. In addition, the existence of various interpretations on whether the author's interpretation of Surah Fâtiha is original or not has caused us to consider this issue as a problem. As a result of our analysis, Ahmed Mâhir has conveyed the negative political or religious situations of his period, especially in his work "Mu'cizât-ı Kur'âniyye". Based on the idea that the Qur'an is perfect and contains everything, he used the verses to correct these situations. His work "el-Fâtiha fî Tefsîri'l-Fâtiha" shows us both the traces of the Ottoman tafsir accumulation of that period and that this scholar has a scientific tradition on tafsir, hadith, and literature. (shrink)

The current qualitative study explores women’s conceptions of the normative family and their day-to-day family lives. To that aim, we conducted five focus group interviews in two low-income neighborhoods of Istanbul. The sample included 43 women who had at least one child between ages 3 and 8 in their care. Participants were 35.64 years old on average and were all married. Women had approximately two children whose mean age was 7.92 years old. Each focus group was semi-structured, lasted for 1–1.5 (...) h, and included 5–12 participants. Thematic analysis of the focus group interview data, moderator memos, and observer’s notes revealed five defining features of healthy family functioning: cohesion, healthy child, parenting, conflict, control, and family organization. Overall, women prioritized motherhood over their other social identities and idealized the happy family, which contradicted their actual lived experiences in the family system. We discuss how women’s depictions of all family processes revolved around cultural constructs of gender, socio-economic status, and independence/interdependence. The findings of this study shed light on future interventions for low-income women and their families in Turkey. (shrink)

ABSTRACT In this article I discuss Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other as a transmodern narrative that gives voice to a marginalised group of black women living in Britain. Written in a hybrid style that combines prose and poetry and eschewing punctuation and long sentences, the novel interweaves sundry stories from the late nineteenth to the twenty-first century set in countries ranging from Africa, the Caribbean, and America to Britain. This networked structure exposes transtemporal and transnational patterns of diversity, connectedness and (...) relationality, as well as the distinctive genealogy of black British women and their maternal empowerment. I argue that the resilience of the characters in the face of social, racial and gender marginalisation springs from their empathic relatedness and solidarity. This emphasis on the importance of care for the other highlights the need for improving not only women’s rights and socioeconomic opportunities but of benefiting humanity on a broader scale. (shrink)

The vision of an art masterpiece is associated with brain arousal by neural processes occurring quite spontaneously in the viewer. This aesthetic experience may even elicit a response in the motor areas of the observers. In the neurorehabilitation of patients with stroke, art observation has been used for reducing psychological disorders, and creative art therapy for enhancing physical functions and cognitive abilities. Here, we developed a virtual reality task which allows patients, by moving their hand on a virtual canvas, to (...) have the illusion of painting some art masterpieces, such as The Creation of Adam of Michelangelo or The birth of Venus of Botticelli. Twenty healthy subjects and four patients with stroke performed this task and a control one in which they simply colored the virtual canvas. Results from User Satisfaction Evaluation Questionnaire and the NASA Task Load Index highlighted an appropriate level of usability. Moreover, despite the motor task was the same for art and control stimuli, the art condition was performed by healthy subjects with shorter trajectories and with a lower perception of physical demand. In experiment 2, only the patients treated with artistic stimuli showed a reduction in the erroneous movements performed orthogonally to the canvas. This finding reminds the so-called Mozart effect that improves the performance of subjects when they listen to classic music. Thus, we called this improvement in the performance when interacting with an artistic stimulus as Michelangelo effect. (shrink)

In the history of philosophy, philosophers have defined philosophy based on their own perspectives. This situation shows that it is a difficult and meaningless endeavor to put forward an understanding of philosophy that has clear boundaries and is accepted by everyone. However, despite these differences in definitions, there are some common points. Perhaps the most important of these common points is that philosophy is a stance, a positioning activity in the face of truth. In this positioning, William James tried to (...) find the moderate path between the currents of rationalism and empiricism and took a stance based on concrete differences in life. Like the empiricists, he tried to keep people's relations with facts alive, but at the same time, he did not exclude religion by adopting a rationalist attitude. However, James argued that abstract concepts cannot have meaning unless they find their counterpart in life. According to James, a life based only on abstract principles would not be qualified. In this study, I will try reconciling William James’ attitude towards abstract principles with practical life. (shrink)

Background: The quality of care in maternity facilities significantly influences women’s autonomy and their right to make decisions about their bodies. Obstetric violence, a form of gender-based violence during childbirth, poses serious threats to women’s rights and health worldwide. Aim: The research aimed to examine women’s experiences and perceptions of obstetric violence using the micro-level constructivist grounded theory strategies of Mena-Tudela et al. (2023). Research design and methods: This study used a phenomenological qualitative research design. Data were collected from 17 (...) eligible women using a Participant Information Form and a Semi-Structured Interview Form, applying maximum variation sampling to ensure a wide range of sociodemographic characteristics and diverse views and experiences. The data were analyzed using the seven-step phenomenological analysis method. Participants and research context: A total of 17 women who had vaginal labor at least 6 months ago were interviewed. Ethical considerations: The study was approved by the University Ethics Board for Non-Interventional Clinical Studies. Ethical considerations were closely aligned with the principles of respecting women’s rights, ensuring that participants’ autonomy and consent were central throughout the research process. Results: Five themes and 13 subthemes were extracted from the data analysis, including “Ignoring women in care,” “The commodification of women,” “Are the healthcare professionals the only authority?”, “Ineffective childbirth management and its effects on women’s health-seeking behavior,” and “Types of obstetric violence.” Conclusions: This study underscores the urgent need to address obstetric violence, recognizing its detrimental impact on women’s rights, and well-being during childbirth. Protecting women’s rights by prioritizing individual-centered care, informed consent, and respectful treatment is essential to uphold ethical standards and ensure dignified childbirth experiences for all women. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Critical Forum Introduction:Cultural Encounters and Textual Speculations in the MediterraneanBurcu Kayışcı Akkoyun, Emrah Atasoy, and Merve TaburThis issue's Critical Forum takes its point of departure from two paradigm shifts. The first one has already occurred in utopian studies, as attested by the increasingly evident interest in non-Western conceptions of utopianism and representations of speculative fiction. Scholars of utopian studies such as Lyman Tower Sargent and Jacqueline Dutton have (...) been writing on utopias from other cultural traditions. The 2013 special issue of Utopian Studies (vol. 24, no. 1), which was introduced by Sargent and Dutton, included articles that reflected Iranian, Chinese, and Korean narratives and perspectives. During the first decade of the twenty-first century, monographs1 and journal special issues2 began examining literary and visual cultures of the Global South and transcultural expressions of the utopian imagination alongside a surge of speculative fiction from the Global South. A rising number of symposiums, anthologies, and critical works on Afrofuturism and Latinx and Arabic speculative fiction also contributed to today's widening discussions.3 This special section in Utopian Studies advocates shifting from Western-centric approaches to more nuanced modes of interpretation with a specific focus [End Page 127] on the Mediterranean, which has itself been a contested discursive site in Mediterranean studies, demanding the formation of new critical paradigms.According to Peregrine Horden and Nicholas Purcell, "It hardly needs stating that the Mediterranean, as an area seldom clearly defined but often subconsciously reduced to Italy and Greece, has been the perceived center of European civilization since the Renaissance, and in many respects since classical antiquity."4 Our set of articles challenges such reductionist views by exploring speculative configurations in the Mediterranean through literary representations of cultural encounters, social conflicts, and environmental crises. Offering analyses of various narratives that present dystopian articulations of the past and figurations of the present along with utopian aspirations for the future, the five contributions in this special section aim to expand the predominantly Eurocentric/Anglophone understanding of the Mediterranean by bringing together scholars and texts from diverse countries: Türkiye, Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia. They demonstrate the cultural interactions between different traditions, conventions, styles, and narratives, all within the broad domain of "speculative" visioning. As Franco Cassano points out, the Mediterranean "becomes the root that we need to rediscover today," but one that is "constitutionally plural. … The Mediterranean that emerges is not a monolithic identity, but a multiverse that trains the mind to grasp the complexities of the world: hybridity, crossroads, and identities that do not love purity and cleanliness, but have been mixed for a long time."5 Cassano's emphasis on plurality as much as rootedness is relevant to the scope and purposes of our contributions as well.The articles here refrain from creating new hierarchies by simply inverting the East-West dichotomy, or by consolidating the center-margin debate within the context of the Mediterranean. While using familiar Western hermeneutical tools to understand utopian and/or dystopian narratives produced in the Mediterranean, this special section underscores historical, political, social, and literary particularities, engaging with various manifestations of power on both textual and contextual grounds. Gabriele Proglio's introduction to Decolonising the Mediterranean (2016) informs the critical orientation of our approach. Decolonizing the Mediterranean "means deconstructing the power relations at play," he writes, "viewing the Mediterranean as an excess space of signification in order to reconsider the past and present stories and subjectivities erased by Eurocentric, nationalist historical discourse."6 Such reconsiderations are essential to imagining future utopian possibilities not [End Page 128] only for fictional narratives but also for the many types of discursive practices shaping the material world.Following Proglio's lead, Ceyhun Arslan examines utopian possibilities that the Mediterranean, whether taken as a context or as a framework, generates for artists and scholars. He argues for the utopian potential of the Mediterranean's longue-durée history, underlining the importance of identifying and resisting discriminatory notions and practices of Western imperialism throughout that history. Drawing on recent approaches to Mediterranean studies, he envisions what he calls a "disciplinary utopia," wherein critics, scholars, and artists carefully attend to linguistic and historical differences in... (shrink)

Given the ubiquitous nature of love, numerous theories have been proposed to explain its existence. One such theory refers to love as a commitment device, suggesting that romantic love evolved to foster commitment between partners and enhance their reproductive success. In the present study, we investigated this hypothesis using a large-scale sample of 86,310 individual responses collected across 90 countries. If romantic love is universally perceived as a force that fosters commitment between long-term partners, we expected that individuals likely to (...) suffer greater losses from the termination of their relationships—including people of lower socioeconomic status, those with many children, and women—would place a higher value on romantic love compared to people with higher status, those with fewer children, and men. These predictions were supported. Additionally, we observed that individuals from countries with a higher (vs. lower) Human Development Index placed a greater level of importance on romantic love, suggesting that modernization might influence how romantic love is evaluated. On average, participants worldwide were unwilling to commit to a long-term romantic relationship without love, highlighting romantic love’s universal importance. (shrink)