Okolo maintains that the African is identified by his personality which is the attitudinal disposition he designates as ‘beingwith’. He adopts the term ‘being-with’ to represent the African ‘communality’ which is all there is to be truly African. Though maintaining a radical communalistic viewpoint suspending in socio-ontological considerations, Okolo posits that this attitude characteristically defines and symbolically stands for that by which ‘an African’ is identified. However, Okolo’s position inheres some problems that border on one, the question and place of (...) right and freedom of the individual as a community-member in the face of the community-consciousness, two, imposition of the title ‘African’ on even non-Africans as he opines that even an American, for instance, who imbibes by the principle of ‘being-with’ is ‘an African’, among other problems. Nonetheless, this paper defends that there are serious series of challenges/disruptions to this personality of ‘being-with’ which today hinder a satisfactory realization of its practicability/liveability even among Africans. The expectations from the paper include one, an analysis of Okolo’s thoughts, pointing out the loopholes for further academic exercise on African philosophical discourse, two, to reiterate the fact that what is African has substantial potency to sustain Africa, and address African problems hence ‘African solutions to African problems’, and third and finally, to propose an alternative view to ameliorating the radical communalistic positions in Okolo. The paper shall here also adopt philosophical conceptualization, content and contextual analysis and clarifications to critically review Okolo. (shrink)

Oholekha Yaʻaḳov -- Et amalenu -- Melekhet H.

It is obvious that the practice of begging is growing exponentially and changing into various forms mostly among the Christians in the Nsukka area. Although begging has long been in existence in the Nsukka area, it has never been encouraged. Financial assistance from family and relatives usually prevents an indigent person from begging in the street. Giving alms to the poor is regarded as a religious duty by many people. But, some beggars take advantage of people's sympathy and thus the (...) practice of begging is encouraged. Many scholars have written about the increase in the number of beggars in Igboland and attributed it to a number of factors such as poverty and ill health. Some see it as an indictment on government. However, this present study attributes the increase in the number of beggars in Nsukka's cultural area to religion, laziness as against hard work, individualism as against communalism, social disorganisation because of urbanisation. These beggars who do nothing other than to beg are less productive, and consequently contribute nothing to the nation's economy. They are a nuisance in the society, as some engage in all kinds of immoral activities that degrade human society. This study therefore attempts to explore the growing trend of begging among Igbo Christians in Nsukka Urban. It aims to identify the different dimensions of begging and the reasons behind this practice. A qualitative phenomenological method was employed in this study. CONTRIBUTION: The findings of this study revealed that poverty is not the cause of begging among Christians in Nsukka but rather laziness, individualism, and religious mendicancy, among others. It recommends that the Igbo people should go back to the values that bind them together. (shrink)

The conception of the human being remains a philosophical controversial discourse among scholars to include Igbo extraction. The discourse has taken many dimensions describable as social, ontological, theologico-anthropological and even normative. Questions now follow: is the human being entirely a spiritual or physical being, or socio-political being, or even anhropological being? What differentiates his existence from the existence of other realities – be it physical or spiritual? It is in addressing these questions that this paper presents a socio-ontological conception of (...) the human being held by Umuoka People which holds that the human being is Maadjvuru which interprets ‘Sustained-Survived/Surviving-Spirit.’ Doing this, the paper shall employ hermeneutical and phenomenological approaches to critically evaluate and undertake the discourse. The paper is expected to present more insights into the discourse by showing that the human being is a manifestation of the spirit, a concretized-spirit with complex physical and spiritual components whose existential experiences underpin his complex nature. (shrink)

This paper examines the rights of nature (RoN) as a product of religious beliefs and how the increasing abandonment of religious beliefs in Europe could impact the development of RoN on the continent. As a concept rooted in religious and Indigenous peoples’ practices, this article argues that there are no religious and Indigenous peoples’ ideologies in Europe upon which RoN of nature could be anchored. Furthermore, since hardly any groups in Europe identify as Indigenous peoples in the strict sense of (...) the term, except some groups in Scandinavia, RoN in Europe cannot be effective as there is no special attachment of most Europeans to natural entities. To achieve this argument, the Enlightenment period is pointed out as the starting point for the abandonment of religion in Europe. Because of this, the article contends that the recent law on RoN for Mar Menor in Spain may fail as it is not rooted in religious philosophies. To transplant RoN to Europe and for it to be effective, a new religion with spiritual traditions and insights consistent with the worldview of RoN would have to be developed. However, for such a view to be protected under Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, it must “attain a certain level of cogency, seriousness, cohesion, and importance.” It is not certain if RoN has attained such a threshold in Europe or will ever attain it. Using the Białowieża Forest case, the paper concludes that nature already has adequate protection in the current legal system in Europe, and it is not necessary for the European Union to adopt RoN. (shrink)

Organizational climate and culture may influence different work-related outcomes, including responsible conduct of research and research misconduct in academic or research organizations. In this scoping review we collected evidence on outcomes of interventions to change organizational climate or culture in academic or research settings. Out of 32,093 documents retrieved by the search, we analysed 207 documents in full text, out of which 7 met the eligibility criteria and were included in the final analysis. The included studies measured organizational climate, organizational (...) culture, or both at biomedical faculties or non-academic university departments. Four studies had post-test, and three before-and-after study designs. The majority of interventions were face-to-face activities, and two were based on organizational change. Six studies reported positive changes in organizational climate/culture after the intervention. These positive changes were measured as improvements in score on different questionnaire survey or were described through authors’ or external evaluator’s narrative reports. However, the methodological quality of the studies was low, both for qualitative and quantitative study designs. Replicable studies, using rigorous methods and clearly defined outcomes are urgently needed if organizations want to achieve a real change in organizational climate or culture for responsible research. The protocol for this scoping review was registered at https://osf.io/7zjqb. (shrink)

We consider the problem whether the $\forall \Sigma _{1}^{b}$ theorems of the fragments $T_{2}^{a}$ form a strictly increasing hierarchy. We shall show a link to some results about the lengths of proofs in predicate logic that supports the conjecture that the hierarchy is strictly increasing.

Is it acceptable to kill an animal that has been granted a pleasant life? This book rigorously explores the moral basis of the ideal of animal-friendly animal husbandry and sheds new light on utilitarian moral theory by pointing out the assumptions and implications of two different versions of utilitarianism, with surprising conclusions.

Shaʻar derekh ha-limud: she-k. e. ṿe-e. yakhol li-zekhot li-ketarah shel Torah -- Shaʻar ʻAṭeret rosh: ʻaśarah maʼamarim - ḥizuḳ ʻetsot ṿe-hadrakhah -- Sefer Ashirah ʻuzekha: perush ʻal Pereḳ shirah.

1. Chŏngch'ijŏk olbarŭm (Political correctness, PC) -- 2. Miguk chŏngsin ŭi chongmal (The Closing of the American Mind) -- 3. Munhwa chŏnjaeng (Culture war) -- 4. Chwap'a chŏngch'i (Left-wing politics) -- 5. Up'a chŏngch'i (Right-wing politics) -- 6. Chinbojuŭi (Progressivism) -- 7. Posujuŭi (Conservatism) -- 8. Taejungjuŭi (Populism).