Fascinating and well-documented in its details of cultural migration and evolution, this book offers a well-balanced perspective on the mutual influence of Arabic and Western worlds during the Middle Ages. It traces the transmission of Greek philosophy and science to the Islamic world, forming a portrait of medieval Muslim thought that illustrates its commonalities with Judaic and Christian teachings as well as its points of divergence. He shows how a particular type of Hellenistic culture made its way through the Syrian (...) Church, the Zoroastrians of Persia, and the pagans of Harran to the Islamic community, attaining its final metamorphosis in northeast Italy, where it constituted an anti-ecclesiastical influence that helped to pave the way for the Renaissance. Bibliography. Chronological Table. Index. (shrink)

The landcare program has been embraced by governments, farmer organizations and conservation groups throughout Australia as offering a model for effective community action to assist the move to more sustainable resource use. Over 2,500 landcare-type groups now operate across Australia with 65,000 members including almost 30% of the farming community. This research used surveys of landcare group activity in most Australian states, a study of the regional landcare action plan (RLAP) process in the state of Victoria, and a survey of (...) landholders in north east Victoria to assess landcare program effectiveness, and particularly, the assumptions underlying the program logic. Information provided revealed the vast scale of community participation in landcare and the considerable amount of onground work undertaken by groups and landholders. Analysis of north east landholder surveys indicated landcare participation had a significant impact upon landholder awareness of issues, level of knowledge, and adoption of best bet practices. However, research findings also highlighted a number of concerns about the program logic and implementation, and the authors suggest it is time to adopt a revised landcare program model. (shrink)

This article presents a conceptual investigation into the value impacts and relations of algorithms in the domain of justice and security. As a conceptual investigation, it represents one step in a value sensitive design based methodology. Here, we explicate and analyse the expression of values of accuracy, privacy, fairness and equality, property and ownership, and accountability and transparency in this context. We find that values are sensitive to disvalue if algorithms are designed, implemented or deployed inappropriately or without sufficient consideration (...) for their value impacts, potentially resulting in problems including discrimination and constrained autonomy. Furthermore, we outline a framework of conceptual relations of values indicated by our analysis, and potential value tensions in their implementation and deployment with a view towards supporting future research, and supporting the value sensitive design of algorithms in justice and security. (shrink)

Engineering ethics and science and technology studies have until now developed as separate enterprises. The authors argue that they can learn a lot from each other. STS insights can help make engineering ethics open the black box of technology and help discern ethical issues in engineering design. Engineering ethics, on the other hand, might help STS to overcome its normative sterility. The contributions in this special issue show in various ways how the gap between STS and engineering ethics might be (...) overcome. In this editorial introduction, the authors discuss the various contributions briefly and delve into the way the various authors conceptualize the engineering design process and the consequences of those conceptualizations for what ethical issues become visible. They also discuss the implications for the responsibility of engineers for technological development. (shrink)