Bentham was an influential thinker with an ‘essentially practical mind’. His influence on British social and political reform, however, was indirect, coming largely after his death and largely through the work of his disciples. Bentham's own attempts to put his ideas directly into practice generally had little effect. He came closest to success in the area of penal policy, winning a contract from Pitt's government in the early 1790s to build and manage a penitentiary that was to be organized on (...) the panopticon principle. Bentham saw the penitentiary as the spearhead of prison reform and as a means of effecting a change from transportation to imprisonment as a punishment for serious crime. While Bentham's use of the panopticon principle itself has attracted most attention in the literature, there was more to his scheme than this. The penitentiary proposals were worked out in great detail, they were a conscious application of his theory of punishment, and they were consistent with and an element of his all-embracing plan of social, political, and constitutional reform. (shrink)

The health benefits of male circumcision are wide rangingIn this issue, John Hutson has reiterated the conventional Western medical view that “the surgical argument for circumcision of all neonatal males at present is very weak” and he criticises many of the circumcisions performed in later childhood, without anaesthesia, as “physically cruel and potentially dangerous” [see page 238].1 He is also of the opinion that “the diseases which circumcision is able to prevent are uncommon or even rare”. But therein he errs, (...) and greatly errs.He cites only two publications dealing with the protective effect of male circumcision against HIV infection, and makes no mention of the important recent meta-analysis of Weiss, Quigley, and Hayes2 which shows conclusively from a large number of studies that …. (shrink)

At one time, A.J.Toynby regarded as civilizations of the "third generation" three civilizations that were formed during the transition from the Old City to the Middle Ages on the basis of the sociocultural, in particular, the religious, property of the ancient and Middle Eastern peoples: Western Christianity, Eastern Christianity, and Muslim. The first two, as is known, had two spiritual Christians, which resolutely differed only in the middle of the XI century. But at the civilization level, the distinction between the (...) East Christian and Western Christian worlds began with the final antiquity. (shrink)

The article is devoted to the actively discussed question of the uniqueness of Net generation. The digital natives have been credited with the ability to multitask and high-speed information processing, greater efficiency in online work. According to many researchers, the high technological skills of digital generation require an educational approach radically different from that of previous generations. According to S. Benett and K. Maton, these appeals for revolutionary changes in educational policy and practice turn into “moral panic.” The analysis of (...) contemporary empirical researches show that the digital skills and competencies attributed to the new generation are significantly overvalued, they need to be shaped and developed. The question regarding the ability of digital generation to adopt and adapt digital technologies remains controversial. The main characteristics of digital generation are distractibility, low attentional control and memorization ability, the problem with cognitive control, and, as a result, reduced educational achievements. The modified reward system and reduced self-control may lead to the Internet addiction formation. This article presents scientific evidence showing that designing education that assumes the presence of these abilities hinders rather than helps learning. However, this does not mean that we have to abandon the idea of technological modernization in education, this only means that new technologies should be used at the right time in the right place. (shrink)

The key objectives of this book are to demonstrate the applicability of issues in the philosophy of science to problems in psychiatry and to show how the conceptual issues raised by psychiatry should be considered more closely by philosophers of science. These are worthy aims: the philosophy of psychiatry needs to draw more thoughtfully upon contemporary philosophical debates and stimulating interest within the philosophy of science is a good way to do this.Cooper's book succeeds for both of these desiderata. The (...) first five chapters discuss the central issues in the philosophy of psychiatry: whether mental illness is a disease/natural kind and what follows from this. There is a large literature on these questions, some of which …. (shrink)

Abstract This paper begins with an introduction to the ancient spiritual tradition of India. The focus is upon aspects of ancient Indian philosophy relevant to modern society. In the Indian context, science and spirituality are complementary. The application of ethical and religious motivations derived from these ideas is delineated with respect to the practical implementation of energy projects. The efforts of religious and social groups in promoting renewable energy in India are included. A few bioenergy technologies relevant to rural communities (...) in developing nations are then described. The paper argues that though scientific research, technology development, community-based efforts, environmental activism, and renewable energy policy making are important elements in dealing with the energy crisis, they are not sufficient to solve the crisis. The paper closes with the premise that the main wisdom to be drawn from the religious, spiritual, and philosophical traditions concerns the inner transformation that is key to meeting today's energy and environmental crisis. (shrink)

The paper deals with some religious and philosophical ideas of the Austrian philosopher Gerhard Oberhammer, who analyses the religious text of vishishta-advaita tradition from the point of Levinas’ philosophy. In the final fragment of his article Oberhammer analyses the formula of Ramanuja parabhaktiparajVAnaparamabhakti, which is understood in the works of the later thinkers of vishishta-advaita as prapatti. Meanwhile this formula for Ramanuja himself means only the meditative God-vision in the form of the steady remembering of God and vision of Him (...) in the images of the Vishnu religion. (shrink)

Philosophers, accounted wise in their generation and even beyond their generation, have enthroned the unchanging and sung the praises of fatality and acquiescence. But there is a voice even more authoritative than that of the sages—the voice of the LifeShaper himself. Perched on the height of the human soul, he has set two watchmen, more sagacious and knowing than the Metaphysicians who weave words “About it and about” in the taverns beneath; their names are Wonder and Surprise. Wonder spies out (...) novelty, and Surprise discerns change. Wonder arises at that which is beyond expectation; Surprise at that which is contrary to expec tation. What could completely surpass expectation save the completely novel? What could so drastically dismantle expectation save the hurricane onset of change? (shrink)

This paper discusses how a subject's judgments about his actions, uncertainties and values may be improved by seeking out and reconciling inconsistences between related judgments. Decision theory tells us that there are relationships between coherent judgments, such as between a prior, likelihood and posterior, but does not tell us how a subject is to reconcile his own, possibly incoherent, views. The role of coherence in improving judgments is not clear. This paper discusses whether there is a unique, best reconciliation of (...) incoherent judgments and how such reconciliation could improve decision-making. The basic principles of the coherent view are explained and a language developed in which the problem of reconciliation can be discussed. The practical importance of the problem is emphasized, illustrated by several examples and possible solutions are explored. (shrink)

The paper deals with the non-usual interpretation of the main works of an-Niffary as an original and specific guide in the Sufi terminology. The specific character of the text obliges a reader to treat the text more attentively that to the ordinary texts created by the human being. The most famous Sufi treatises on Sufism and its terminology are Qushayri and Hudjwiri's works,which contain definitions of most important Sufi terms and notions. Niffary works are not so well-known, but they also (...) can be regarded in a sense as a specific guidebook on Sufi terminology. The paper deals with the peculiarities of understanding by those three mystics the Sufi term “ma'arifa”, which sometimes is mistranslated as gnosis. One of the basic distinction in such an understanding is that for Niffary there is no outward sign of successful attainment of mystical knowledge. Further both Qushayri and Hudjwiri point out that the Sufi practice can not contradict the Sunna. Meanwhile Niffary says that Sunna is significant only if there is ma'arifa, not vice versa. (shrink)