This paper traces the tenuous relationship of prestige television, the culture industry and blackness. The opening section aims to get a hold on what is meant by prestige television. We review literature that introduces and problematizes the intuitive arguments of prestige television’s elevated status as high art and ultimately conclude with a sociopolitical argument that minimises the distinction between form and content in order to emphasise and show the hierarchy inherent in the culture industry based on legitimacy. The second section (...) introduces the idea of blackness to the conversation of prestige television by analysing the final scene of The Sopranos – a cut to the black screen – as not merely the event that officially inaugurates prestige television, but as an event that also announces the possible escape from its parameters of legitimacy. To do the latter we reflect upon “Black Bieber” as a figure of illegitimate blackness in Donald Glover’s Atlanta. In the third and concluding sections of the paper, we continue our elaboration of the uniqueness of blackness by putting into conversation Fred Moten’s conception of fugitive blackness with Theodor Adorno’s aesthetic theory. In the conclusion, we show how blackness challenges the totalizing aspect of the culture industry, totalizing aspect of the culture industry, pointing us towards something altogether new, after black(ness). (shrink)

ABSTRACT The following article highlights post-Kantian philosophical moments in Kant’s Critique of Judgment. Post-Kantian is less a temporal designation and more a conceptual category indicating the absence of a unified Critical system. This article focuses on three specific areas where conceptual commitments in the first two Critiques are questioned and undermined in the third Critique leading to an incomplete system. The purpose of this article is to move away from a reading of Kant that simultaneously privileges the Critique of Pure (...) Reason (over and above the other two critiques) and that uses the Critique of Pure Reason as a lens through which to read the critical system. This shift toward the third critique is to specify the nonunified aspect of the Critical system and to highlight significant moments of the Critique of Judgment. This article concludes by specifying the precise moments where Kant’s third Critique moves beyond the boundaries of the first two. (shrink)

This article tackles a thorny issue within the reception of Badiou’s philosophy, i.e., the question of the role of the “social” within the ontological framework it outlines. Acknowledging that the question of the social is underdeveloped in Badiou’s system, the paper argues that there are resources in it to develop a social ontology, and attempos to flesh it out through an original and sustained reading of Badiou’s key formula on the distinction between democratic materialism and materialist dialectic: “there are only (...) bodies and languages, except that there are truths”. (shrink)

This paper highlights the shortcomings of Georges Bataille’s writings in terms of his failure to address white supremacy and blackness by critically engaging and expanding his cosmological metaphor through the figure of the black hole. The sun is a timeless figure in the history of western thought as an epistemological and ontological metaphor. Bataille offers alternative cosmological interpretations whereby luxurious excess and waste aim to transfigure the traditions of metaphysics, ethics, and political economy. This paper confronts Bataille’s cosmologies and heliotropes (...) through an afropessimistic lens whereby blackness proves to be an ontological positionality that is not simply marginal to whiteness, but antagonistic, thus allowing for an expanded critical cosmology that incorporates the figure of the black hole. (shrink)

Do these lyrics ring true to you? When truth rings, when it oscillates, it reverberates in one’s soul and imagination. These lyrics confer a feeling of sincerity that does not translate without a certain context: the rhythm, rawness, and rhyme open the ear of the listener to retrieve this depiction of an almost unimaginable world expressed from an equally difficult-to-imagine perspective. For some, while the veracity of this description is beyond the pale of their reality, the significance, the proverbial weight (...) of these lyrics, resonates in a different register of truth that follows from a sense of their honesty.Yet, for other listeners these lyrics cannot be heard in this register. They instead must be a literal... (shrink)

Una conversación con Christian Niemeyer acerca de su nuevo libro: Nietzsche, New School.

Defensive medicine is defined as a doctor’s deviation from standard practice to reduce or prevent complaints or criticism. The objectives of this study were to assess the prevalence of the practice of defensive medicine in the UK among hospital doctors and the factors affecting it.

In most countries where Islam is acknowledged as a, or the, source of legislation, abortion is permitted under certain conditions and at certain stages of pregnancy. This article examines some of these laws and argue that they represent a continuation of the logic that governed the views of pre-modern Muslim jurists on abortion, that is, harm aversion. However, these laws also add a ‘modernist’ twist to that logic – rather than repealing that logic altogether, modernist views on ‘rights’ and the (...) advancement of medical knowledge and technology have influenced the priorities of Muslim jurists and lawmakers as far as abortion and the issues associated with it are concerned. This influence has furthermore been possible by a conscious selection and blending of pre-modern views to serve modern concerns. In all this, however, harm aversion remains the centrifugal principle, even when the abortion discourse in Muslim countries appears couched in the modernist discourse of rights. (shrink)

What drives us to make decisions? Future-Minded explores the psychological processes of agency and control. If you've ever wondered why we think of coincidences as matters of fate rather than the result of the laws of probability, this book provides the answer. From memory and reasoning to our experiences of causality and consciousness, it unpicks the mechanisms we use on a daily basis to help us predict, plan for and attempt to control the future. Future-Minded - Features a wealth of (...) real world examples to help you engage with this fast-developing area. - Provides clear analysis of psychological experiments and their findings to explain the evidence behind the theory. Thought-provoking and highly topical, Future-Minded is fascinating reading for psychology students studying cognition or consciousness, and for anyone interested in understanding how we try to determine the future. (shrink)

2024 jährt sich der Geburtstag Immanuel Kants, dem neben Hegel, Marx und Wittgenstein wohl bekanntesten deutschen Philosophen, zum 300. Mal. In jüngster Zeit gab es eine Reihe von Veröffentlichungen, in denen behauptet wurde, Kant sei ein „Rassist“ gewesen. Was ist von diesen Vorwürfen zu halten? Diese Frage haben wir Volker Gerhardt, dem Initiator und Mitherausgeber der neuen Akademie-Ausgabe der Werke Kants gestellt. Er lehrt als Seniorprofessor an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

The present study discusses findings that replicate and extend the original work of Burns and Vollmeyer (2002), which showed that performance in problem solving tasks was more accurate when people were engaged in a non-specific goal than in a specific goal. The main innovation here was to examine the goal specificity effect under both observation-based and conventional action-based learning conditions. The findings show that goal specificity affects the accuracy of problem solving in the same way, both when the learning stage (...) of the task is observationbased and when it is action-based. Additionally, the findings show that, when instructions do not promote goal specificity, observation-based problem solving is as effective as action-based problem solving. (shrink)

Bu makalede, râ harfinin tefhîm/kalın ve terkîk/ince okunmasına dair hususlar son dönem Osmanlı kurrâlarından Bursalı Süleyman Vehbi’nin (öl. 1334/1916) Risâle-i Râiyye adlı eseri ekseninde ele alınmıştır. Kur’ân harflerinin seslendiriliş biçimini ifade eden fonetik farklılıklar kıraat ilminin amelî/pratik boyutunu oluşturan en önemli unsurdur. Bu minvalde Kur’ân alfabesindeki harfler genel olarak, birbirinin zıddı olan tefhîm-terkîk sıfatlarından biriyle seslendirilmektedir. Bununla birlikte lâm ve râ harfleri bazen kalın bazen de ince okunmaktadır. Lâm harfinde aslolanın terkîkle telaffuz edilmesi olup bazı durumlarda tağlîzle/tefhîmle okunduğu hususunda ittifak (...) edilmiştir. Fakat âlimler râ harfinin tefhîm veya terkîki konusunda ihtilaf etmişlerdir. Bazıları, aslı itibariyle râ harfinde tefhîm-terkîk özelliği bulunmayıp birtakım şartlar muvacehesinde bunlardan birisiyle okunduğunu söylerken; cumhur ise râ’da aslolan tefhîm olup bazı şartlar çerçevesinde terkîkle okunduğunu ileri sürmüştür. Husûsen Verş (öl. 197/812) rivâyeti ve Ezrak (öl. 240/854) tarikine göre râ harfinin tefhîm-terkîkle okunması gereken yerlerin tespiti kıraat tedrisatında zaptı en zor olan hususlardan addedilmiştir. Hâl böyle iken günümüze değin râ harfine dair kurrâ arasındaki ihtilafların tam anlamıyla açıklanıp vuzuha kavuşturulduğu -Süleyman Vehbi’nin risâlesi dışında- Türkçe bir eser kaleme alınmamıştır. Türkçe eserlerde râ’nın okunuşuna dair hususlar genelde Hafs (öl. 180/796) rivâyeti özelinde işlenmiş, Verş ve Ezrak’ın, râ harfini okuyuş keyfiyetlerine yönelik bilgilere yeterli ölçüde yer verilmemiştir. Bu bağlamda mezkûr boşluğun doldurulması, çalışmanın amaçlarından biridir. Makalenin Risâle-i Râiyye çerçevesinde ele alınmasının sebebi müellifin, Osmanlı’daki kıraat tedrisinde temel kaynak olarak kullanılan en-Neşr, İthâf, Zübdetü’l-irfân, Umdetü’l-hullân, el-Îtilâf, Bedâi‘u’l-burhân ve Mürşidü’t-talebe gibi eserlerin hemen hepsine müracaat edip konuyu sistematik bir şekilde ele alması ve yeri geldikçe mezkûr eserlerdeki hata ve eksikliklere değinmesidir. Makalede öncelikle müellifin hayatına yer verilmiş, ardından risâlede işlenen konular tavzih edilmiştir. Bu yapılırken müellifin verdiği bilgilerin aslî kaynaklardaki yeri ve râ’nın tefhîm-terkîk ile okunmasının illeti/sebebi tespit edilmeye çalışılmıştır. Ayrıca müellifin eser içerisinde hata ve eksikliklerine değindiği kaynakların ilgili yerleri tespit edilip hangi ibare ve ifadelerle tashih edilmesi gerektiğine işaret edilerek araştırmacılara kolaylık sağlanması amaçlanmıştır. Çalışma sonunda görülmüştür ki Ezrak, esreli râlar’ın terkîkinde ve kelime başlarındaki fethalı-zammeli râlar’ın tefhîminde diğer kurrâ ile müttefiktir. Ancak kelime ortasında-sonunda bulunan mansûb-meftûh râlar’ı “kelimenin aslından olan lâzımî kesreli harften sonra gelmesi”, “lâzımî kesreyle râ’nın arasında sakin bir hurûf-i isti‘lânın -hâ/خ hariç- bulunmaması” ve “râ’nın sakin yâ harfinden sonra gelmesi” durumunda sadece terkîkle; bu şartları taşımakla birlikte râ’nın tenvinli olması durumunda terkîk ve tefhîm olmak üzere iki vecihle; bu şartlardan birinin bulunmaması durumunda ise sadece tefhîmle okumuştur. Mazmûm ve merfû râlar’ı ise mansûb râlar için zikri geçen şartları taşımaları halinde Verş sadece terkîk, Ezrak ise terkîk ve tefhîm vechiyle okumuştur. Burada şunu ifade etmek gerekir ki kütüphanelerde özellikle Osmanlı dönemine ait pek çok kıraat eseri gün yüzüne çıkarılmayı beklemektedir. Söz konusu eserlerin ortaya çıkarılıp incelenmesi hem süreç içerisinde kıraat ilminin nasıl bir seyir izlediğinin tespiti hem de mezkûr eserlerin verilerinden istifade edilerek yeni çalışmaların ortaya konulması açısından önem arz etmektedir. (shrink)

The end of the 1990s witnessed the corporatization of public universities in Malaysia resulting in the publication of corporate literature in these universities and the type of writing Fairclough refers to as the marketization of academic discourse. Marketization is necessary in public universities due to stiff competition in attracting students among the public universities as well as from the increasing number of private universities. This article reports how Malaysian universities re-brand themselves using the results of an investigation on corporate brochures (...) from these universities. The investigation employs a structural analysis and a textual analysis. Although informative in nature, these corporate brochures exhibit the use of promotional elements in the texts as seen in the contents and the language use. The communicative functions of university brochures are viewed to be more promotional than informative. (shrink)

In problem solving research insights into the relationship between monitoring and control in the transfer of complex skills remain impoverished. To address this, in four experiments participants solved two complex control tasks that were identical in structure but varied in presentation format. Participants learnt either to solve the second task, based on their original learning phase from the first task, or learnt to solve the second task, based on another participant’s learning phase. Experiment 1 showed that, under conditions in which (...) participants’ learning phase was experienced twice, performance deteriorated in the second task. In contrast, when the learning phases in the first and second tasks differed, performance improved in the second task. Experiment 2 introduced instructional manipulations that induced the same response patterns as Experiment 1. In Experiment 3 further manipulations were introduced that biased the way participants evaluated the learning phase in the second task. In Experiment 4, judgments of self-efficacy were shown to track control performance. The implications of these findings for theories of complex skill acquisition are discussed. (shrink)

Placing the future centre stage as a way of understanding cognition is gaining attention in psychology. The general modern label for this is “prospection” which refers to the process of representing and thinking about possible future states of the world. Several theorists have claimed that episodic and prospective memory, as well as hypothetical thinking (mental simulation) and conditional reasoning are necessary cognitive faculties that enable prospection. Given the limitations in current empirical efforts connecting these faculties to prospection, the aim of (...) this mini review is to argue that the findings show that they are sufficient, but not necessary for prospection. As a result, the short concluding section gives an outline of an alternative conceptualisation of prospection. The proposal is that the critical characteristics of prospection are the discovery of, and maintenance of goals via causal learning. (shrink)

Reseña de Benedikt Maria Trappen, Ach, dass ich doch erst Befreiter wäre. Friedrich Nietzsche. Eine Lebensgeschichte in Briefen, München: Verlag Dr. Friedrich Pfeil, 2020, p. 144. Benedikt Maria Trappen, Wahrheit, Ewige Wiederkehr, Wille zur Macht: Grundthemen Nietzsches in der Auslegung von Karl Jaspers, München: Verlag Dr. Friedrich Pfeil, 2020, p. 120.

Given the privileged status claimed for active learning in a variety of domains (visuo-motor learning, causal induction, problem solving, education, skill learning), the present study examines whether action-based learning is a necessary, or a sufficient, means of acquiring the relevant skills needed to perform a task typically described as requiring active learning. To achieve this, the present study compared the effects of action-based and observation-based learning on controlling a complex dynamic task environment. Both action- and observationbased learners either learnt by (...) describing the changes in the environment in the form of a conditional statement, or not. The findings show that observational learners are sensitive to the instructional manipulations pursued during learning, in ways that are comparable to the active learning conditions. For both, advantages in performance, accuracy in knowledge of the task, and self-insight were found when learning was based on inducing rules from the task environment. (shrink)

Reseña de los libros: Barbara Neymeyr - Kommentar zu Nietzsches "Unzeitgemässen Betrachtungen": I. David Strauss der Bekenner und der Schriftsteller, II. Vom Nutzen und Nachtheil der Historie für das Leben, Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter, 2020 Barbara Neymeyr - Kommentar zu Nietzsches "Unzeitgemässen Betrachtungen": III. Schopenhauer als Erzieher, IV. Richard Wagner in Bayreuth, Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter, 2020.

The style and style of expression of the Qur'an is not chronological and detailed, especially in short stories and historical events. This is the fact that some people, places and community names are not mentioned in the Qur'an. The identification of these ambiguities is possible with narrations. For this reason, the ambiguities in the Qur'an have been clarified with the help of the narrations in the commentaries and in the works on the subject. This article deals with how to interpret (...) whether narrations in quotations are taken into account when interpreting ambiguities in the Qur'an. (shrink)

لأننا نعيش في عالم يكتنفه الغموض من كل جانب؛ عالم تتسم معرفتنا لأحداثه ووقائعه بالتناقض واللاتحديد، وتُفصح قضايانا اللغوية الواصفة له عن الصدق تارة وعن الكذب تارة أخرى، فنحن في حاجة إلى فلسفة جديدة تعكس حقيقة رؤيتنا النسبية لهذا العالم وقصور معرفتنا به؛ ونحن في حاجة إلى نسقٍِ منطقي يُلائم معطياته غير المكتملة ويُشبع معالجاتنا لها، سواء على مستوى ممارسات الحياة اليومية أو على مستوى الممارسة العلمية بمختلف أشكالها. والفلسفة التي يقترحها هذا الكتاب هي «النيوتروسوفيا»؛ تلك النظرية التي قدمها الفيلسوف (...) والرياضي الأمريكي «فلورنتن سمارانداكه» العام 1995 كتعميم للنزعة الجدلية، والتي تكشف بأسلوب جديد عن تناقضات الفكر وحركته الدائبة والمتصلة بين الصدق والكذب، وتُعيد لملكة السلب هيبتها المفقودة لدى العقل القانع بوهم الثبات المطلق. ومن هذه النظرية ينبثق المنطق النيوتروسوفي كتعميم لأنساق المنطق المعاصر متعدد القيم، لاسيما المنطق الحدسي الغائم. ورغم حداثة النظرية والنسق، وتعدد مجالات تطبيقهما في الفكر الغربي المعاصر، وبصفة خاصة مجالات العلم التقني، إلا أن ثمة استخدامات أخرى لهما لدى مفكري العرب والإسلام إبان مرحلة ازدهار الحضارة الإسلامية، وهو ما يكشف عنه الكتاب من خلال دراسة منطقية مقارنة، تميط اللثام عن أصالة وخصوبة الفكر العربي، فضلاً عن تحرره وتسامحه وجمعه بين الرأي والرأي الآخر، في وقت يوسم فيه من قبل الغرب بالانغلاقية، والتشدد، والتحجر، ورفض الآخر، وخصومة الحوار الجدلي. (shrink)

Imam Hatip schools (religious vocational schools) in Turkey have been taught teaching Arabic for many years. However, the objectives of learning Arabic have not yet been realized. The Education Council of the Ministry of Education prepares educational plans and programs for Arabic lessons in order to increase the quality of Arabic language teaching, the first of these programs was in 1973. This research is a field study carried out in 2016 on how to implement the educational programs prepared in 2011 (...) for Arabic lessons in Imam Hatip schools, and the problems facing the teacher in practical reality. The scope of the research is limited to Tekirdağ Anadolu Religious High School for boys, Süleymanpaşa Anadolu Religious High School for girls, Süleymanpaşa Religious Secondary school, and the teachers working in these schools. The research was based on the views of those educators as to how the educational programmes for Arabic lessons and the problems they faced during their exercise were implemented. The research was formulated through interviews with teachers. The results of the research according to the data received from the teachers were processed in the statistical program SPSS and then converted to frequency values and percentage values. These values were presented in tabular form. As a result of the findings, it was seen that most of the teachers did not read the Arabic lesson teaching program they were practicing, and they were unaware of the program’s vision, approach and goals; and they did not understand the program’s approach, vision, and objectives. Moreover, it was understood that the minds of the teachers were not clear about whether the Arabic language was a foreign language lesson or a religious vocational lesson, that the teaching practices and behaviors of teachers are incompatible with the educational program and they also had one view that the goals of the Arab lesson were largely unfulfilled. After the main results have been revealed and discussed, finally, following the disputed results, some suggestions were made to increase the quality of teaching Arabic such as making Arabic an effective, active and influential element in the lives of students and teachers through various awards and scholarships and the examination of Arabic as a foreign language in the university entrance examinations as an element of motivation and quality. In addition, in order to improve the quality of the Arabic teacher, we have made the Arabic exams as periodic, an increase in salaries according to the teachers’ receivables score, the continuation of in-service trainings, etc. (shrink)

Laura Hassan. Ash‘arism Encounters Avicennism: Sayf al-Dīn al-Āmidī on Creation. Piscataway, NJ : Gorgias Press LLC, 2020. xi+317 sayfa. ISBN:‎ 9781463207199.

This paper consists of two parts and has two aims. The first is to elaborate on the historical-philosophical background of Cantor’s notions of infinity in the context of Spinoza’s influence on him. To achieve this aim, in the first part I compare Spinoza’s and Cantor’s conceptions of actual infinity along with their mathematical implications. Explaining the metaphysical, conceptual, and methodological aspects of Cantor’s expansion of the orthodox finitist conception of number of his time, I discuss how he adopts Spinoza’s motifs (...) to overcome the challenges on his way to proposing his transfinite infinites. To achieve the second aim, i.e., to investigate the philosophical foundations of Cantor’s transfinite infinites, I follow a three-step outline analyzing Cantor’s three principles along with their metaphysical and epistemological-linguistic aspects. I analyze the strengths and weak sides of Lakoff and Núñez’s Basic Metaphor of Infinity and Pantsar’s Process → Object Metaphor, then compare their interpretations with mine. I conclude that the metaphors can be improved when their source domains are limited to the target domains they apply to and when supported by a thorough analysis of the historical-philosophical background of their target domains. (shrink)

A study on the two concepts of spandrel and fitrah, which appear to have the same meaning but are interpreted differently due to differences in perspective. Both concepts recognise the existence of certain innate faculties in humans and posit that these faculties predispose humans to belief. Spandrel posits that these innate faculties are a by-product of adaptations that enable us to survive in the evolutionary process, whereas fitrah asserts that these faculties are bestowed by God. The impetus for this study (...) is the recognition that human beings are creatures of faith. The prevalence of belief in supernatural powers across all periods, geographical regions and cultures throughout human history, coupled with the existence of common features in all such beliefs despite formal differences, demonstrates the necessity for further research in this area. (shrink)

Fıkıh usulünün dil ve yorum bahislerinde yer alan konulardan biri âmm lafızlardır. İlk dönemlerde umum ifadelerin tanımına, varlığına ve kapsamına dair tartışmalar yer alırken Gazzâlî sonrasında klasik mantığın konularından olan tümeller de tartışmada yerini aldı. Bu makale âmm lafızların gönderimde bulunduğu anlamın tümelliğini sorgulamakta ve klasik sonrası usul düşünürlerinin umum-tümel ilişkisine dair teorik açıklamalarını incelemektedir. Makalenin iddiası şudur: Fıkıh usulünün elfâz bahislerinde ele alınan umum ifadelerin tümellere delâletini savunan ve bunu dilin zihnî suretlere vaz olunmasına bağlayan ilk usulcü Gazzâlî’dir (ö. (...) 505/1111). Fahreddin er-Râzî (ö. 606/1210) ve sonraki dönem usulcüler ise âmm lafızların tümelliğini kabul etmemiş sadece fertleri arasında tümel bir anlamın var olduğunu savunmuştur. Aynı düşünceyi devam ettiren Karâfî (ö. 684/1285), İsfahânî (ö. 688/1289) ve Sübkî (ö. 771/1370), İbn Sînâ’nın (ö. 428/1037) etkisiyle umum ifadeleri tümel önermeler olarak değerlendirirken Teftâzânî (ö. 792/1390) kapsam kavramı üzerinden hem tüm hem tümel olarak görmüştür. Her iki farklı anlayışın öğretilerini eklektik bir tavırla inceleyen Cem‘u’l-cevâmi‘ üzerine şerh ve haşiye yazan usulcüler ise tüm, tümel ve tümel önerme olmak üzere üç farklı kabul sergilemiştir. (shrink)

Bu makale, felsefi düşüncenin Kıraat İlmi üzerindeki etkisini, özellikle metodoloji, yorumlama ve analitik derinlik üzerindeki etkisine odaklanarak incelemektedir. Temel felsefi kavramların, özellikle ontoloji, epistemoloji ve aksiyolojinin, bu disiplindeki yorumlama kapasitesini büyük ölçüde artırdığını savunmaktadır. Dil felsefesi, temel metinlerin doğru anlaşılması ve yorumlanmasında kritik bir rol oynamaktadır. Metodolojik ilerlemelerin ötesinde, felsefi söylem, metinsel yapılar ve anlamların detaylı incelenmesi için sağlam bir teorik çerçeve sağlar. Eleştirel düşünce ve ontolojik içgörülerin entegrasyonuyla, Kıraat İlmi metinsel analizde daha derin bir seviyeye ulaşır, katmanlı anlamları ortaya (...) çıkarır. Kıraat İlmi ile felsefi temalar arasındaki etkileşim, özellikle dil felsefesi ve ontoloji mercekleri aracılığıyla, terimlerin anlaşılması ve metin değerlendirmelerinin ilerletilmesi için kapsamlı bir iskele oluşturur. Sonuç olarak, felsefi düşünce, Kıraat ilminin teorik temelini önemli ölçüde zenginleştirir, geniş bir entelektüel arenada anlama, yorumlama ve akademik analizde yükseltilmiş seviyelerin kolaylaştırılmasını sağlar. (shrink)

Liberia’s protracted civil conflict was sustained for a period of fourteen years, killing approximately 250,000 Liberians and displacing half of the population. Liberia’s war, like othe...

Science is widely regarded as the most reliable epistemic source of providing knowledge about the world. Policymakers intend to make purposeful changes in the world. The practice of policymakers relying on scientific experts to make informed decisions about which policies to implement is called Evidence Based Policymaking. This thesis provides a perspective from the philosophy of science in order to discuss the justifiability of Evidence Based Policymaking (EBP) with respect to broadly democratic and liberal values. Justifying EBP with broadly democratic (...) and liberal values entails that the practices of EBP promote, or at least are in harmony with, values such as democratic governance and enhancement of people’s freedom and autonomy. Identifying the conditions under which practices of EBP meet such desiderata minimally requires an understanding of how sciences and scientific experts are instrumental in realizing the public’s values, needs, interests, and pursuit of freedom. In order to approach this project, the thesis adopts a philosophical perspective to conceptualize how sciences are supposed to be guided by or promote society’s values, needs, and interests. Specifically, it adopts a perspective from the philosophy of science that focuses on the relationship between science and (societal) values. The kind of philosophy of science perspective on “values in science” that this thesis adopts has two overarching pursuits relevant for the project of the thesis. Firstly, it seeks to inform the debates about which values and non-epistemic considerations are supposed to inform scientific research. For instance, it discusses the proper sources/owners of the non-epistemic desiderata that inform scientific research and the proper social mechanisms to identify these non-epistemic desiderata (e.g. Kourany, 2010; Kitcher, 2011). Second, it offers theories of the non-epistemic values’ proper roles in scientific reasoning and research that specify how their involvement in science does not unduly compromise the epistemic pursuits of science. The values-in-science perspective thereby seeks to balance the instrumental value of science (i.e., its use to pursue certain societal projects and values) with its epistemic authority (i.e., its objectivity, non-dogmatism, and reliability). The thesis advances an understanding of EBP from the perspective of the values in science by addressing issues that come to the fore when EBP is acknowledged as a value-laden practice of informed decision-making. (shrink)

Kelâm âlimleri “mûcize” kavramını iki farklı şekilde tarif etmişlerdir. Bunlardan ilkinde mûcize “Peygamber olduğunu ileri süren kimsenin elinde, onun doğruluğunu kanıtlamak için meydana gelen hârikulâde olay” şeklinde tanımlanmıştır. İkinci tarife göre ise mûcize: “Peygamberlik iddia eden bir zâtın elinde, inkârcılara meydan okuduğu bir sırada, kendisini doğrular mâhiyette, başkalarının benzerini yapamadıkları, Allah tarafından yaratılan, olağanüstü olay”lara verilen addır. Tanımlardan da anlaşılacağı üzere “mûcize” kelimesiyle genel olarak “hissî mûcize”lere işaret edilmektedir. Zaten erken dönemden itibaren görünür olmaya başlayan İcazu’l-Kur’ân çalışmalarını dışarıda tutarsak “mûcize” (...) teriminin kelâmî metinlerde yer almaya başladığı IV. yy. dan itibaren genelde Hz. Peygamber’in (sav) hissî mucizelerinin bulunup bulunmağı temelinde tartışmalar yaşanmıştır. Hatta Kur’ân’da yer verilen geçmiş peygamberlere ait hissî mucize örneklerinden hareketle mesele zaman zaman peygamberlerin hissî mucizelerinin birbiriyle yarıştırılması boyutuna kadar taşınmıştır. Tüm bu tartışma safahatında geçmişte ve günümüzde ihmal edilen, gözden kaçırılan ya da yeteri kadar değer verilmeyen -bizce en önemli ve bugün de gözle görülür, dost, düşman, insaf sahibi herkesin takdirle karşıladığı- mûcize örneği ise Hz. Peygamber’in topyekûn dinî ve siyasî alanda sergilediği insanları dönüştürme kabiliyetidir. Kaldı ki Hz. Peygamber’in bu türden sergilediği mûcize örnekleri geçmişte bir noktada yaşanmış ve misyonunu tamamlayarak tarihin dehlizlerinde kaybolmuş da değildir. Aksine bu dönüştürme ameliyesi nebevî prensiplerin ikâmesi ile asr-ı saâdette ve sonrasında olduğu gibi günümüzde ve kıyamete kadar devam edecek olan zaman dilimlerinde de örnekliğini sürdürmeye ve fonksiyonunu icra etmeye devam edecektir. Hz. Peygamber’in başta Bedir Savaşı ve Hudeybiye Antlaşması olmak üzere birçok siyasî alanda yine bireysel ve toplumsal olarak içinde yaşadığı toplumun yüceltilip yükseltilmesinde olağanüstü bir başarı sağladığı yadsınamaz bir gerçektir. Elde ettiği başarıların kendisini hiçbir şekilde asıl hedefinden, tevhid merkezli yaşantısından uzaklaştırmaması, günün sonunda yine “rabbine şükreden bir kul” vasfını koruması onun şahsî kemâlinin ve vahye muhatap oluşunun en büyük göstergelerindendir. John William Draper (ö. 1882) gibi Batılı bilim insanlarına şu türden cümleleri kurduran en mühim sâik de kuşkusuz Hz. Peygamber’in sözünü ettiğimiz o eşsiz dönüştürme kabiliyetidir: “Tüm insanlar arasında, insan ırkına en fazla tesir eden kişi, Justinianus'un (ö. 565) ölümünden dört yıl sonra Mekke’de, Arabistan'da doğan kişidir. Pek çok imparatorluğun manevî ve dinî lideri olmak, insan ırkının üçte birinin günlük hayatını yönlendirmek, belki de ‘Allah'ın Elçisi’ unvanının gerçek olduğunun delilidir.” İşte “Bir Mûcize Örneği Olarak Hz. Peygamber’in İnsanları Dönüştürme Kabiliyeti” başlığını taşıyan bu makale, Müslüman toplumun kendi ekseninde yükselmesi ve yücelmesi adına hayatî önemi hâiz, günümüz insanının hayat felsefesine yön vermesi açısından da son derece kıymetli ve yol gösterici olan Son Elçi’nin bireyi, toplumu ve insanlığı dönüştürme kabiliyetini onun vahye muhatap kimliği ve tevhid eksenli hayatı çerçevesinde ortaya koymayı hedeflemektedir. (shrink)

In a landmark 1994 case, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that individuals had the right to ask for Internet links that contained certain information about them to be delisted by search engines. This came to be known as the “right to be forgotten.” This paper discusses the extent to which this right is consistent with the Islamic tradition. Following an overview of some aspects of the right to be forgotten and why it is endorsed in the (...) European Union with its emphasis on privacy but not in the USA with its exaltation of free speech, the paper discusses two related issues: (1) elements in the Islamic tradition potentially conducive to endorsing a particular understanding of the right to be forgotten and (2) some possible obstacles from that tradition that could challenge the recognition of this right from an Islamic perspective. The paper concludes that despite some challenges, including Qur’anic verses and certain views, activities, and institutions, the right to be forgotten is defendable from within the Islamic tradition by reference to the principle of _satr_, which breaches that one should not seek to publicize personal information that causes harm to other people or even to oneself. The paper seeks to contribute to discussions on this new right by showing what a religious tradition such as Islam can offer to them. (shrink)

This article discusses the quiddity of the empty set from its epistemological and linguistic aspects. It consists of four parts. The first part compares the concept of _nihil privativum_ and the empty set in terms of representability, arguing the empty set can be treated as a negative and formal concept. It is argued that, unlike Frege’s definition of zero, the quantitative negation with a full scope is what enables us to represent the empty set conceptually without committing to an antinomy. (...) The second part examines the type and scope of the negation in the concept of _nihil privativum_ and the empty set. In the third part the empty set is interpreted as a rigid abstract general term. The uniqueness of the empty set is explained via a widened version of Kripke’s notion of rigidity. The fourth part proposes a construction for the pure singleton, comparing it with Zermelo’s conception of singletons with the Ur-elements. It is argued that the proposed construction does not face the criterion and ontological inflation problems. The first conclusion of the article is that the empty set can be construed as a negative, formal and unique abstract general term, with quantitative negation full in scope. The second conclusion is that the pure singleton constructed out of the empty set construed in this way overcomes the criterion and ontological inflation problems. (shrink)