This book offers a new way of approaching the place of the will in Descartes' mature epistemology and ethics. Departing from the widely accepted view, Noa Naaman-Zauderer suggests that Descartes regards the will, rather than the intellect, as the most significant mark of human rationality, both intellectual and practical. Through a close reading of Cartesian texts from the Meditations onward, she brings to light a deontological and non-consequentialist dimension of Descartes' later thinking, which credits the proper use of free (...) will with a constitutive, evaluative role. She shows that the right use of free will, to which Descartes assigns obligatory force, constitutes for him an end in its own right rather than merely a means for attaining any other end, however valuable. Her important study has significant implications for the unity of Descartes' thinking, and for the issue of responsibility, inviting scholars to reassess Descartes' philosophical legacy. (shrink)

This study seeks to explore the major errors that frequently emerge when novice translators translate technical texts, namely legal documents released by the Department of Lands and Survey in Jordan. The goal behind this investigation is to improve legal translation training, develop students’ drafts based on the types of their mistakes, and deliver a message to curricula designers in the field of legal translation. To this end, 20 Jordanian novice translators (MA students) are chosen from two private universities to translate (...) three legal documents from Arabic into English. The main findings revealed that different problems emerged, namely the participants’ inability to translate near-synonym technical terms, grammatical problems, and stylistic problems at both lexical level and sentence level. These findings are hoped to be insightful for both learners and teachers. A number of pedagogical recommendations are proposed by the researchers to develop learners’ competence and reach a professional level and open the venue for trainers to achieve advances in the quality of the target text and in the translation teaching–learning process. (shrink)

Ethical research conduct is a cornerstone of research practice particularly when research participants include vulnerable populations. This study mapped the extent of reporting ethical research practices in studies conducted among refugees and war-affected populations in the Arab World, and assessed variations by time, country of study, and study characteristics. An electronic search of eight databases resulted in 5668 unique records published between 2000 and 2013. Scoping review yielded 164 eligible articles for analyses. Ethical research practices, including obtaining institutional approval, access (...) to the community/research site, and informed consent/assent from the research participants, were reported in 48.2, 54.9, and 53.7% of the publications, respectively. Institutional approval was significantly more likely to be reported when the research was biomedical in nature compared to public health and social, when the study employed quantitative compared to qualitative or mixed methodologies, and when the journal required a statement on ethical declarations. Institutional approval was least likely to be reported in papers that were sole-authored, when these did not mention a funding source, or when published in national journals. Similar results were obtained for access to the community site and for seeking informed consent/assent from study participants. The responsibility of inadequacies in adherence to ethical research conduct in crisis settings is born by a multitude of stakeholders including funding agencies, institutional research boards, researchers and international relief organizations involved in research, as well as journal editors, all of whom need to play a more proactive role for enhancing the practice of ethical research conduct in conflict settings. (shrink)

"L'homme raconte dieu en se racontant lui-même et vice versa. Il l'explore en s'explorant lui-même. Il le territorialise en limitant son propre territoire. Dieu est un territoire exploré et raconté, c'est-à-dire un récit d'explorateur et une exploration racontée. La théologie territoriale n'est pas une théologie du territoire mais, dans sa nature et sa méthode propres, elle possède une structure territoriale. Comme mode de penser dieu, elle le déterritorialise et le reterritorialise à travers un langage nouveau, en modifiant la carte linguistique (...) du territoire. C'est une théologie de l'hérésie, de l'expérience particulière et singulière que quiconque a dans son territoire propre et selon son récit. Dieu est toujours explorable, abordé en lettres minuscules, sinon il ne serait pas dieu. Le personnage d'Al Khalil (ou l'ami) est l'explorateur, le théologien par excellence, qui conduit ses divers interlocuteurs vers l'accouchement expérimental et existentiel d'eux-mêmes. Enracinés dans l'amour et la vérité, ses dialogues territoriaux relèvent pourtant d'une dimension kérygmatique. Saturés d'un symbolisme tantôt implicite, tantôt explicite, ils donnent à penser." --. (shrink)

BackgroundThe Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute is obligated to peer review and to post publicly “Final Research Reports” of all funded projects. PCORI peer review emphasizes adherence to PCORI’s Methodology Standards and principles of ethical scientific communication. During the peer review process, reviewers and editors seek to ensure that results are presented objectively and interpreted appropriately, e.g., free of spin.MethodsTwo independent raters assessed PCORI peer review feedback sent to authors. We calculated the proportion of reports in which spin was identified during (...) peer review, and the types of spin identified. We included reports submitted by April 2018 with at least one associated journal article. The same raters then assessed whether authors addressed reviewers’ comments about spin. The raters also assessed whether spin identified during PCORI peer review was present in related journal articles.ResultsWe included 64 PCORI-funded projects. Peer reviewers or editors identified spin in 55/64 submitted research reports. Types of spin included reporting bias, inappropriate interpretation, inappropriate extrapolation of results, and inappropriate attribution of causality. Authors addressed comments about spin related to 47/55 of the reports.Of 110 associated journal articles, PCORI comments about spin were potentially applicable to 44/110 articles, of which 27/44 contained the same spin that was identified in the PCORI research report. The proportion of articles with spin was similar for articles accepted before and after PCORI peer review.DiscussionJust as spin is common in journal articles and press releases, we found that most reports submitted to PCORI included spin. While most spin was mitigated during the funder’s peer review process, we found no evidence that review of PCORI reports influenced spin in journal articles. Funders could explore interventions aimed at reducing spin in published articles of studies they support. (shrink)

In this paper, I argue that despite undeniable fundamental differences between Descartes’ and Spinoza’s accounts of human action, there are some striking similarities between their views on right action, moral motivation, and virtue that are usually overlooked. I will argue, first, that both thinkers define virtue in terms of activity or freedom, mutatis mutandis, and thus in terms of actual power of acting. Second, I will claim that both Descartes and Spinoza hold a non-consequentialist approach to virtue, by which human (...) actions are evaluated as virtuous or good on the basis of their motivational forces rather than their consequences. I will show further that both philosophers identify virtue qua free action with the highest good, and thus with that which is to be sought for its own sake and not as a means to anything preferable to it. (shrink)

This article examines the Israeli documentary My Land Zion and the Palestinian documentary Paradise Lost. Both films are critical autobiographical texts and in both, the woman filmmaker negotiates her emotional and ideological ties with her culture, history, and nation. Naaman proposes that by using the autobiographical genre and by engaging emotionally as well as rationally, the women filmmakers discussed offer a particular gendered position rebelliously outside nationalism and the place of women within it.

This article examines the Israeli documentary My Land Zion and the Palestinian documentary Paradise Lost. Both films are critical autobiographical texts and in both, the woman filmmaker negotiates her emotional and ideological ties with her culture, history, and nation. Naaman proposes that by using the autobiographical genre and by engaging emotionally as well as rationally, the women filmmakers discussed offer a particular gendered position rebelliously outside nationalism and the place of women within it.

A major trend that characterized the naturalization of the Aristotelian habitus concept in the medieval Islamic world was its application to religious discourses. This trend was not limited to the works of Muslim thinkers. The present communication focuses on the ways in which Maimonides used the concept, naturalizing it in the religious Jewish system.

Habitus is a logical and ethical Aristotelian concept that was first introduced to the Islamic world through the translation of Greek philosophical works into Arabic in the ninth century. Following its introduction and until the nineteenth century, thinkers and scholars of the Islamic world naturalized it creatively in various intellectual systems. In ethical usage, habitus is a disposition that, once acquired and well established through a process of accustoming, allows humans to perceive and act in certain ways without deliberation or (...) reflection. This concept explained how humans transcended their inborn natures, and as such it was amenable to employment in manifold fields and contexts. The present article studies significant applications from the ninth to the nineteenth century by thinkers of the Islamic world, who fleshed out the Aristotelian concept and used it for their own purposes. Among other things, it shows that the two main trends of naturalization involved application of the concept to religious Islamic discourses and to the study of humans and their society, anticipating modern Western sociological usage. (shrink)

This article examines how Arabic handled societal taboos in the medieval Islamic world and the ways by which language users applied censorship that led to the creation of euphemisms. Special attention is given to sources from the eastern part of the Islamic world dating to the fourth/tenth and the fifth/eleventh centuries, and to the taboo topics and types of euphemisms they disclose. The complex relationship between the concept of euphemism and kināya, the polysemous Arabic term that renders it, is examined. (...) As a whole, the evidence demonstrates an overwhelming Arabic preference for figurative speech over change of form as the essential generation mechanism of euphemisms. Finally, light is shed on the ways in which discerning medieval literary critics anticipated significant modern sociolinguistic observations: the relations between euphemism, orthophemism, and dysphemism, in addition to the incessant process of euphemism degradation. (shrink)

The term “Cartesianism” is commonly applied to a wide range of philosophical and scientific doctrines. The question of what constitutes the spirit or essence of Cartesianism – providing a common core for the works of Descartes, Arnauld, Rohault, La Forge, Régis, Spinoza, Le Grand or Malebranche, among others – has elicited a great variety of answers. Without attempting a comprehensive response to the question, I begin by presenting some main presuppositions and goals commonly attributed to Descartes and other Cartesian doctrines (...) – both by their proponents and opponents. A fundamental Cartesian postulate concerns the metaphysical dualism of body and mind. Thoughts (e.g., ideas, volitions and judgments) are regarded by Descartes as modifications of the mind, whereas extension, size, shape, motion or rest are modifications of matter. According to the Cartesian “way of ideas,” the mind is directly acquainted only with its own modifications, and the objects external to the mind are known only through the mediation of ideas. External reality is viewed as given independently of any individual subjective consciousness. Although Descartes was not the first to posit this view, he invested it with a new meaning in his novel conception of the human mind. Within this framework, the Cartesian subject has been viewed mainly as an observer – one who can only represent independent reality rather than constitute it. Some indication of this view may be found in the third part of the.. (shrink)

Public university business schools appear to struggle in upholding their educational self. Corporate scandals linked to business graduates raise questions about the role of PUBS in the development of civilized societies. This study develops an ethical decision making model in the PUBS context based on moral theories and then empirically tests the model. The model hypothesizes that individuals’ moral philosophies in terms of egoism and utilitarianism as well as subjective norm in terms of peer influence affect their unethical behavioural intention. (...) Moreover, this study compares ethical levels between business students with those from other disciplines. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire from established public universities in Malaysia. The data was analysed using the Smart Partial Least Squares, a second generation structural equation modelling software, as well as the SPSS version 23. The results reveal that moral philosophies and subjective norm exert positive and significant effects on unethical behaviour intention. The study, however, found no significant effect with regard to unethical behaviours between business and non-business students. The authors argue that a university’s status may explain a student’s intentions towards ethics. Implications of the results and future research are proposed. (shrink)

In this study, we investigate the effectiveness of a robust sampled-data H ∞ load frequency control scheme for power systems with randomly occurring time-varying delays. By using the input-delay technique, the sampled-data LFC model is reformulated as a continuous time-delay representation. Then, Bernoulli-distributed white noise sequences are used to describe randomly occurring time-varying delays in the sampled-data LFC model. Some less conservative conditions are achieved by utilizing the Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional and employing Jensen inequality and reciprocal convex combination lemma to ensure (...) the considered power system has mean-square asymptotic stability under the designed control scheme. The derived results are based on linear matrix inequalities that can readily be solved using the MATLAB LMI toolbox. The criteria obtained are used to analyze the upper bounds for time delays, and a comparison study to validate the efficacy of the presented method is presented. (shrink)

This paper discusses essential elements of the philosophical works of Ludwik Fleck and their potential interpretation for the teaching and learning of science. In the early twentieth century, Fleck made substantial contributions to understanding the sociological character of the nature of science and explaining the embedding of science in society. His works have several parallels to the later and very popular work, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, by Thomas S. Kuhn, although Kuhn only indirectly referred to the influence of Fleck (...) on his own theories. Starting from a short review of the life of Ludwik Fleck, his philosophical work and its connections to Kuhn, this paper elaborates upon and illustrates how his theories can be considered for science education in order to provide learners with a better understanding of the nature of scientific endeavor and the bi-directional science-to-society links. (shrink)

The translational research community, in general, and the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) community, in particular, share the vision of repurposing EHRs for research that will improve the quality of clinical practice. Many members of these communities are also aware that electronic health records (EHRs) suffer limitations of data becoming poorly structured, biased, and unusable out of original context. This creates obstacles to the continuity of care, utility, quality improvement, and translational research. Analogous limitations to sharing objective data in (...) other areas of the natural sciences have been successfully overcome by developing and using common ontologies. This White Paper presents the authors’ rationale for the use of ontologies with computable semantics for the improvement of clinical data quality and EHR usability formulated for researchers with a stake in clinical and translational science and who are advocates for the use of information technology in medicine but at the same time are concerned by current major shortfalls. This White Paper outlines pitfalls, opportunities, and solutions and recommends increased investment in research and development of ontologies with computable semantics for a new generation of EHRs. (shrink)

A collection of essays in French or English on the reception of Cartesian philosphy.

The sudden onset of severe traumatic brain injury (sTBI) is an event suffered by millions of individuals each year. Regardless of this frequency in occurrence, accurate prognostication remains difficult to achieve among physicians. There are many variables that affect this prognosis. Physicians are expected to assess the clinical indications of the brain injury while considering other factors such as patient quality of life, patient preferences, and environmental context. However, this lack of certainty in prognosis can ultimately affect treatment recommendations and (...) prompt clinical ethical issues at the bedside, as it leaves room for physician bias and interpretation. In this article, we introduce data on neurosurgeon values that may shed light on the process physicians and patients involved in sTBI undergo. In doing so, we highlight the many nuances in decision-making for patients suffering from sTBI and discuss potential solutions to better patient-physician or surrogate-physician interactions. (shrink)

Host-microbiome interactions (HMIs) are critical for the modulation of biological processes and are associated with several diseases, and extensive HMI studies have generated large amounts of data. We propose that the logical representation of the knowledge derived from these data and the standardized representation of experimental variables and processes can foster integration of data and reproducibility of experiments and thereby further HMI knowledge discovery. A community-based Ontology of Host-Microbiome Interactions (OHMI) was developed following the OBO Foundry principles. OHMI leverages established (...) ontologies to create logically structured representations of microbiomes, microbial taxonomy, host species, host anatomical entities, and HMIs under different conditions and associated study protocols and types of data analysis and experimental results. (shrink)

Background:Promoting patients’ rights is essential for defining the standards of clinical services within a country. Given their responsibilities, nurses can be the primary target for research to investigate the issue of patients’ rights within a healthcare system. As such, assessing the knowledge of nurses about patients’ rights is an essential step toward improving the quality of healthcare in limited resource settings like Sudan.Objectives:We aimed to assess the level of knowledge about patients’ rights among the nursing staff at Friendship Teaching Hospital (...) in Sudan.Methods:This hospital-based cross-sectional study was carried out at the Friendship Teaching Hospital in Sudan. We surveyed the totality of nurses (95) at the hospital using an amended survey. The data were analyzed in SPSS software using descriptive and inferential statistics.Ethical consideration:The study was approved by the Research Unit of Khartoum Ministry of Health and the Hospital administration. All respondents gave verbal consent prior to participating in the study.Results:Only 48.4% of the participants knew about the existence of the Sudanese Charter of patients’ rights. Nonetheless, our analysis found that 65.8% of nurses had acceptable level of knowledge (scored more than 75% of the total knowledge score) of patients’ rights, and none of the participant scored less than 50% of the total knowledge score. Finally, we found no statistical association between the knowledge score and demographic data, educational level, whether the participant knows about the existence of the Charter or not and a number of other factors.Conclusion:Nurses’ lack of knowledge about the existence of the Sudanese Charter of patients’ rights adopted in 2009 rights confirms the need for further efforts by Ministry of Health to promote the document. Furthermore, further research is needed to investigate the disconnect between nurses’ lack of knowledge about the existence of the charter and their awareness of the rights within the charter as well as the actual implementation of rights. (shrink)

Noa Naaman-Zauderer’s book aims to bring to light the ethical underpinnings of Descartes’ system: on her view, in both the practical and the theoretical spheres Descartes takes our foremost duty to lie in the good use of the will.The marked ethical import of Cartesian epistemology takes the form of a deontological, non-consequentialist view of error: epistemic agents are praised/blamed when they fulfill/flout the duty to not assent to ideas that are less than clear and distinct.Extra-theoretical realms admitting of no (...) clear and distinct perceptions are subject to ‘softer’ duties of acting on the basis of the best available reasons. Since Cartesian epistemology involves ethical considerations,and since the late Cartesian ethics of virtue crucially depends on metaphysical knowledge about the nature and function of the will, Descartes’ ethics is not just a fruit of his tree of knowledge but it also nourishes its own roots. (shrink)

Paul Atreides's Jihad is only the start of the suffering. Having conquered humanity, Paul becomes dictator of an oppressive theocratic empire that brutally crushes dissent. With his life unnaturally extended by transforming into a human–sandworm hybrid, Leto will rule humanity as “God Emperor” for three and a half millennia. Fremen religion had been carefully cultivated by the Bene Gesserit Missionaria Protectiva, their “black arm of superstition” responsible for manipulating primitive cultures. It is the seeds planted by the Missionaria Protectiva (...) that allow Paul and Lady Jessica to survive among the Fremen, and which enables Paul to become the Fremen Messiah. Religion in the Dune universe represents the future of the religions we have today, especially the monotheistic religions. Real‐world religious figures have often required unquestioning acceptance. Religions have often been used as a source of political power. (shrink)

In the present interview, Jacob Rogozinski elucidates the main concepts and theses he developed in his latest book dedicated to the issue of modern jihadism. On this occasion, he explains his disagreements with other philosophical (Badiou, Baudrillard, Žižek) and anthropological (Girard) accounts of Islamic terrorism. Rogozinski also explains that although jihadism betrays Islam, it nonetheless has everything to do with Islam. Eventually, he describes his own philosophical journey which led him from a phenomenological study of the ego and the flesh (...) to the study of past (witch-hunts, French Reign of Terror) and contemporary (jihadism) terror apparatuses. (shrink)

This article offers an overview of the various formulations of "jihad" during the first six Islamic centuries (7th-13th CE), showing them to be embedded in particular socio-historical contexts. If the essential significance of "jihad" as righteous cause (i.e., action for the sake of a moral order) is shown to have been variously altered according to the needs and conditions of the Muslim community, significant possibilities arise for a contemporary understanding of "jihad" that is relevant to the needs (...) and circumstances of the Muslim community today. Some features of the "jihad" tradition, although specific to a particular period and with little relevance today, continue to inform the current discussion on "jihad." Discussion of the "jihad" tradition, then, should take care to distinguish the historically incidental features of the tradition from those with an enduring relevancy. By doing so, the "jihad" tradition will be able to contribute to discussions on the relation of religion to the public order and political organization, even those not limited to Islam. (shrink)

The hypothesis of our work is that the concepts of globalization, the information technology boom and Postmodernism are closely linked and that somehow eroded the ontological concepts of identity, individual and cultural diversity, in terms of the relationship I and the other. In the international strategic framework that other has fallen on Arab-Islamic culture. The thought of the Western world, with its logic of instrumental rationality has built stereotypes about that culture, ignoring its archetype. This reality is the one that (...) perceives the concepts of the Arab-Islamic tradition of Jihad and Hijra only as ideas that lead to the destruction and not as a heritage of the philosophical and religious thought for the development of humanity. From a Jungian interpretation, both concepts and the psychic behaviors that derive from them, outside the fallacious and violent interpretations, are valuable contributions to humanity in the current situation. (shrink)

This article offers an overview of the various formulations of jihad during the first six Islamic centuries (7th–13th CE), showing them to be embedded in particular socio‐historical contexts. If the essential significance of jihad as righteous cause (i.e., action for the sake of a moral order) is shown to have been variously altered according to the needs and conditions of the Muslim community, significant possibilities arise for a contemporary understanding of jihad that is relevant to the needs (...) and circumstances of the Muslim community today. Some features of the jihad tradition, although specific to a particular period and with little relevance today, continue to inform the current discussion on jihad. Discussion of the jihad tradition, then, should take care to distinguish the historically incidental features of the tradition from those with an enduring relevancy. By doing so, the jihad tradition will be able to contribute to discussions on the relation of religion to the public order and political organization, even those not limited to Islam. (shrink)

The word "jihad" is everywhere in the global media. It generally appears in the context of violence waged against the West by militants in or from Muslim-majority societies. This usage overwhelmingly colors popular discourse about Islam and Muslims and it has resulted in highly simplistic, distorted, and a historical understandings of the concept of jihad. For most Muslims, jihad refers to the continuous human struggle to promote and implement what is morally good and noble in all walks (...) of life, as well as to resist and prevent what is morally wrong and unjust. This book addresses the great need for a discussion of jihad that explores its various dimensions without fear-mongering or sensationalism. Here it is examined from multiple perspectives: scriptural, theological, moral and ethical, legal and socio-political. Asma Afsaruddin looks at the key questions about jihad and provides concise yet thorough answers. Jihad: What Everyone Needs to Know® provides a historically-grounded, scholarly yet accessible treatment of the meanings of jihad from the formative period of Islam until the contemporary period." -- Amazon. (shrink)

"Juxtaposing "ecumenism" and "jihad," two words that many would consider strange and at odds with one another, Peter Kreeft argues that we need to change our current categories and alignments. We need to realize that we are at war and that the sides havechanged radically. Docu-menting the spiritual and moral decay that has taken hold of modern society, Kreeft issues a wake-up call to all God-fearing Christians, Jews, and Muslims to unite together in a "religious war" against the common (...) enemy of godless secular humanism, materialism, and immorality. "Be forewarned. This book pricks prejudices, jostles assumptions, and can do permanent harm to complacent Christianity. Definitely not recommended for people who are unprepared for a rollickingly adventurous journey into truths that might change them forever. Don't say you were not warned." - Fr. Richard John Neuhaus"--. (shrink)

The major argument in this article is that the contemporary concept of jihad inclines to have a heavy personal political baggage. In Southeast Asia, the talibanization and the influence of the al-Qaeda interpretation of the jihad appear to have made their inroad in regional radical salafi movements such as the Jamaah Islamiyah, Jama’ah Anshorut Tauhid, and Hizbut Tahrir. Radical salafi differs from the traditional salafi given its belief in the use of force to achieve religious-political objectives. Indonesia has (...) been the center for these movements and their presence has been felt in Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Thailand and Philippines. Some of them have been active in propagating the new concept of jihad. Therefore, this article maps out the conception of jihad as it is propounded by the three movements. It discusses how the conception of these movements of jihad has departed from the earlier salafi movements. In addition, it discusses how the idea has been expanded from Indonesia to other parts of the Southeast Asian archipelago. (shrink)

Jihad and Just War in the War on Terror explores the cases for war put forward by George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden. It systematically lays out how violence has been justified on both 'sides', and how these justifications have been criticised within the West and the Muslim world.

Over the course of the last 1400 years, Islam has grown from a small band of followers on the Arabian peninsula into a global religion of over a billion believers. How did this happen? The usual answer is that Islam spread by the sword-that believers waged jihad against rival tribes and kingdoms and forced them to convert. Lamin Sanneh argues that this is far from the case.

Muslim women's rights have been a topic of discussion and debate over the past few decades, and with a good reason. Islamic Law is considered by many as patriarchal and particularly oppressive to women, and yet there are also others-Muslim women-who have rigorously defended their religion by claiming that Islam is the guarantor par excellence of women's rights. A big question begs to be answered: is Islam particularly oppressive to women?The Qur'an has addressed women's issues fourteen hundred years ago by (...) creating certain reforms to improve the status of women; however, these reforms do not seem to be practiced in Muslim societies today.1 How is this so? I contend that Islam, as revealed to Muhammad, is not oppressive to women; rather, its interpretation, in so far as it is enacted in the family laws and everyday living, is patriarchal and hence needs to be examined.2 The goal of this work is to discuss what the Qur'an says about certain problems which gravely affect Muslim women, specifically: 1. gender equality 2. polygamy 3. divorce and the concept of nushuz. (shrink)

On countering slander, religious hate speech, and blasphemy from Islamic perspectives to build religious harmony in Indonesia.