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 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)

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)

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)

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)