Online research in philosophy

The rapid development of new media and online social networks has given rise to hopes that these media will serve as a democratizing vehicle. Through an Arendtian analysis of the significance of the public sphere, and a Habermasian normative framework for public discourse, this essay examines the contribution of cyber media to participation in public discourse and a more accessible public sphere. It argues that although online social networks can play an important role in the political realm, they ultimately fall short of fulfilling the democratic need for a true public sphere and for the kind of public discourse a true public sphere requires.

The place of religion in society and modernity is among the most contentious political issues in the first decade of the 21st century. Faith has been remarkably resilient and resurgent in the face of the secularisation that has characterised Western liberal democracies since the Enlightenment. This heightened sensitivity to and significance of the relationships between religion and politics make Neil Addison's attention to the way that law regulates religious discrimination and hatred a timely contribution. This review looks at the ways Addison's Religious Discrimination and Hatred Law (2007) addresses these aspects of law and religion in Britain.

Arbitration is a preferred method for the resolution of international business disputes. As of yet, most publications on online arbitration deal with legal issues. In this paper, we present an Online arbitration environment that we believe facilitates the participants in a meaningful way. Our assumption is that an ODR service should be easy to use (convenient), and at the same time provide meaningful support. More specifically we have paid attention to four criteria that we believe are important, viz. simplicity, awareness, orientation and timeliness. The online arbitration service is called GearBi.

This study reviews some of the principal themes in contemporary work on religious language. Unlike other recent surveys, the most pressing issues about religious language are addressed from the perspective of the philosophy of language; different positions taken on these issues by philosophers of religion and theologians are considered. Topics that are covered include: the subject matter of religious discourse, reductionism and subjectivism, expressivism, the nature of religious metaphor, religious fictionalism and truth in religious discourse. The study also looks at the relationship between questions about religious language and cognate areas of philosophy of religion such as epistemology and metaphysics, and potential future directions of research.

In this paper, we describe Blackboard’s Online Journal program and explain how we use the online journal in a variety of philosophy courses. We outline our pedagogical motivation for using online journals and analyze how online journals help to improve our students’ ability to read, write and think philosophically. We analyze the strengths and weaknesses of online journals in comparison to online discussion boards. Finally, we address several concerns that philosophy teachers may have about using online journals.

In Between Literature and Science Peter Swirski examines the true intellectual scope of Edgar Allan Poe and Stanislaw Lem.

This study adopted a dynamic perspective in investigating the effects of employees’ perception of equity (PoE) and perception of organizational politics (POP) on their trust in organizations and the subsequent effect of such on their commitment. Data were collected from 216 employees from various industries. The positive effect of PoE and negative effect of POP on employees’ trust were confirmed in this study. It is also found that employees’ trust in organizations has a positive effect on their organizational commitment. This study also confirmed the mediation of employees’ trust on the relationships between POP, PoE, and organizational commitment. Besides, the moderation of employees’ trust on the relationships between POP, PoE, and organizational commitment was not confirmed. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

This essay argues that the flaws of just war theory should lead us to develop a new approach to living with others. Danielle Poe begins her argument with a description of just war theory and its failures. In the next section, Poe discusses the philosophy of Bat-Ami Bar On and Luce Irigaray in order to construct ethical commitments between people. These ethical commitments come from concrete acts of empathy, such as relationships of compassion, kindness, and hospitality. Finally, Poe considers how these concrete acts can create conditions to prevent war.