Monotheism is a product of abstract thought. Although it does not exactly overlap with the view of God in today's monotheistic religious beliefs, the thought of God in Ancient Greek philosophy, that is, the creative thought other than the creature, found its cores in Plato's Demiurge [Dēmiourgos], and this thought continued to develop with Aristotle, Plotinus and St Augustine. Thus, it can be said that the Christian faith, which includes the Jewish religion in terms of belief and Greek philosophy in (...) terms of thought, easily managed to gain a place in the medieval world of thought. With the effort to rationalize and ground the Christian faith, philosophy has become an end rather than a means on this path. -/- The translation of Aristotle's logical works (by Boethius) at the beginning of the 6th century gave an important impetus to the grounding of knowledge in sacred texts. However, the real influence of Aristotle occurred after the 13th century. The Crusades (1096-1272) and the Islamic world known through trade played an important role in this because the developments in Western Philosophy until the 13th century were largely based on translations and commentary texts in the Islamic world. In the Middle Ages, the person who was seen as the best commentator of Aristotle and who took the title of "commentator" [Shareh] was Averroes (1126-1198), who was also a member of this productive Islamic world of thought. He is known as the "commentator" because he interpreted Aristotle's works by adhering to his teachings. It is also said that Averroes pioneered Aristotle's recognition by westerners. Averroes’ commentaries are divided into three as long, middle, and short. In long commentaries, he blends Aristotle's philosophy with his own thoughts; he interprets Aristotle's philosophy in the middle commentaries; in short commentaries, he gives a summary of Aristotle's thoughts. -/- Aristotle's philosophy played an active role in shaping the thought system of Averroes. So much so that his epistemology is largely similar to Aristotle's epistemology: The source of knowledge, knowledge of knowledge with causes, the processes of the formation of human knowledge, etc. Here, a point where he differs from Aristotle is the source of knowledge, since he is an Islamic thinker. According to Averroes, God is the source and cause of things, and things are the source and cause of human knowledge. The formation of human knowledge consists of three stages: outer sense, inner sense, and mind. Another important issue of his epistemology, apart from the knowledge produced by man and the knowledge of God, is causality. Through causality, knowledge is formed, and since causality is continuous and necessary, this situation brings order with it. This ensures that the information is verified and thus genuine information is obtained. -/- Averroes’ understanding of ontology is in harmony with the teachings of Islam. He mainly talks about the relationship between philosophy and religion and thinks that these two actually talk about the same reality. He explains that philosophy and religion seem to conflict with the fact that the holy book has two meanings, visible and hidden. Thus, philosophy and religion do not actually conflict and do not say contradictory things. -/- Averroes, who followed Aristotle's way in terms of epistemology and ontology, took Plato as an example, not Aristotle, in his political philosophy for technical reasons. For this reason, his thoughts on state structuring are similar to Plato's The Republic [Politeia]. Averroes’ political philosophy is based on ethics. His thoughts on politics can be summarized with the basic concepts of happiness, justice, and equality. As in Plato and Aristotle, happiness is important for Averroes and the state is responsible for providing and protecting it. For this reason, it describes a virtuous city, and the virtue of justice is, in a sense, the condition of existence for all other virtues. -/- Averroes has been an important thinker for both the East and the West. He played a significant role in the efforts of the Middle Ages to reconcile religion and philosophy and became one of the names that the Western world benefited from most in establishing its bond with Greek thought. Averroes became famous as an Aristotelian commentator, but since he did not know Greek, he got to know Aristotle through translated works and wrote his comments on these translated works. Nevertheless, Aristotle's philosophy played an active role in shaping Averroes’ thought system, as he was an Aristotle commentator. (shrink)

Max Weber, who was a well-known sociologist both of his own time and of today, has been one of the most influential names – besides, Immanuel Kant, Søren Kierkegaard, and Friedrich Nietzsche - for Karl Jaspers, who is one of the original names that come into minds when the 20th-century existential philosophy is mentioned. In fact, it can easily be asserted that Weber had a huge personal role in Jaspers’ carrier as a philosopher. Karl Jaspers is known for his uniquely (...) discussed concepts such as freedom (Freiheit), communication (Kommunikation), Existenz, limit situations (Grenzsituationen), the encompassing (das Umgreifende), guilt (Schuld), and responsibility (Verantwortung). And it is obvious that Jaspers was affected by Weber considering his two specific concepts: guilt and responsibility. This is the case because Jaspers himself explains how and in what ways he was influenced by Weber. In this article, we will discuss Weber from the perspective of Jaspers. This discussion will be held in two aspects: i) personal features of Weber given by Jaspers, and ii) Weber’s effects on Jaspers from the viewpoint of Jaspers and what they share considering politics and ethics at the theoretical level. (shrink)

The problem of future generations is a growing ethical issue. There are ongoing discussions about what kind of earth we are leaving and what we should leave to future generations as a result of the delayed awareness – if not ignorance – of the fact that this World does not belong to us exclusively. When we look at the example of Turkey, we can see that there is a huge conflict between environmental utilization and environmental education. On the one hand, (...) we have classes on the environment and its health; on the other hand, it is a reality that we have a not-so-eco-friendly government policy, which takes no notice of any kind of environmental issues or requirements. To mention but few, governmental insistence on real estate investments in green spaces, even by covering grade 1 natural site areas, a decline in the extent of agricultural land due to uncontrollable urbanization, and hydroelectric power plant projects are among recent events. These are the instances of conflicts between inscriptive and operative environmental policies in Turkey. The purpose of this article is to call attention to this dilemma and to assert that ecocide might be just another kind of genocide for Turkey, i.e., the genocide-yet-to-come. (shrink)

The main subject of this paper is the two significant problems of environmental ethics which are ecofascism and speciesism. This scrutiny offers an evaluative perspective on the main problems of environmental ethics and is conducted with this aim. Most of the environmental philosophers, all the difficulties notwithstanding, try to find a middle way in the ecofascism-speciesism continuum and their theories get closer to one or the other edge of this continuum. John Baird Callicott is one of the environmental philosophers who (...) struggle with this issue when his theory indicates one of the problems or gets closer to one of the edges, he tries to find a new way to go. There are six turns in Callicott's philosophy starting with strong holism due to accepting Leopold's land ethic as a basis. Then, he constructed a theory that pushes him closer to the speciesist edge, and finally, he found a way out from these fatal consequences. However, all the environmental philosophers face the same problems in their journey although they are either holists or individualists in the end. In constructing a holistic environmental ethical theory, for instance, they may be in ecofascism difficulty because holism requires man to be an ordinary member of the biotic community as seen in the first turn. Or, establishing a special place for humankind to ditch the ecofascism crisis may cause another equally important crisis, namely, speciesism (see the third turn). Some philosophers prefer to be closer to one of the edges always being on guard against the other. Some others, like Callicott, try to find a middle way equally far from the edges. However, this choice is no easier. Selecting to be a member of both the human community and biotic community brings different problems, such as ranking problems between the duties and obligations toward the communities and their members, i.e. a challenge to decision-making processes. For such problems, they come up with some principles or rules like second-order principles (SOPs) as Callicott did (in the fifth turn). But, these rules or principles are not sufficient enough to solve the ranking problems of setting priorities among our duties to members of both communities, either. Thus, either there is a need for more regulations and rules, or these two communities should be separated in a different dimension and gathered at another level. The second choice is preferred by Callicott and used as a solution to the main problem: constructing an environmental ethical theory that involves whole nature with its members and which is free from two essential problems (see the sixth turn). As a final point, Callicott's last theory seems to point to the conclusion that an environmental ethical theory is possible without falling into the ecofascism and speciesism traps, i.e. his last stand can facilitate the attainment of the main subject of this essay. (shrink)

The aim of this study is to introduce the Deep ecology movement and show how to apply it into our real world experiences. Importance of Deep ecology comes from its being an answer to the problem of anthropocentrism. In this study, the necessity of reason in practicing ethical rules in our relation with nature is mentioned. Reason is needed to avoid from anthropocentrism. In Deep ecology, although we are part of nature and what we do is naturel –because of this (...) reason care flows naturally-, our self-realization must be achieved in a right way and this is possible only with reasoning. However, one should keep in mind that anthropocentrism is very tricky. Because, reason and ethical rules can lead us to human-centeredness in a way. In order to get rid of this puzzle, one should combine these two in a smart formula. (shrink)

In this paper, in general, I will present Martin Buber’s and Emmanuel Levinas’ perspectives on interpersonal relations within the main cotext of dialogue and then give my own standpoint about the issue in question: “Is asymmetry really needed for a genuine dialogue?” In the meantime, I will also propound some fundamental notions of their philosophies with the intent of displaying their viewpoints in a clearer way.

In this article, chronological information will be given about the takkas established in the church buildings in Istanbul. After the conquest of Istanbul in 1453 Mehmet II started to establish works of foundation in the city in order to reorganise the city and the statesmen were encouraged the creation of such charitable works. In order to provide the current needs in the city, some of the churches were converted into mosques, masjids, madrasah, lodges- takkas and public soup kitchens. Among these (...) structures, there were double-function buildings serving both as a mosque and as a takka. Many of these mosques and masjids were used as a religious ceremony place/tevhidhane, suffering place/çilehane and training place. There are mosque and takkas were build on the grounds of many ruin churches, which could not be restored due to various reasons. In Istanbul, there were eighteen churches which were used as tevhidhane where the chanting of the tariqah was made on certain days of the week, and takkas were built in their places. (shrink)

Motivated by the ethical dilemma in managerial financial reporting decisions, we explore and reveal an unintended “crash” consequence following accelerated patenting information dissemination. Employing the American Inventor’s Protection Act (AIPA) that accelerated the publication of patent applications, we find that accelerated dissemination of patenting information increases stock price crash risk. This effect is stronger when treated firms are technologically closer to their rival firms and more concerned about proprietary costs. Further analyses indicate that, the heightened crash risk following the AIPA (...) is attributable to managers shifting towards less timely bad news disclosures. Overall, our study documents that accelerated dissemination of patenting information induces managers to strategically withhold negative information, which adds to the comprehension of what and how (un)ethical decisions are undertaken by managers. (shrink)

This paper examines several contemporary readings of Piaget's texts: M. Chapman's Constructive Evolution provides a wide-ranging exegesis of Piaget's entire body of work; F. Vidal's Piaget before Piaget focuses on Piaget's earliest writings; and H. Beilin's Piaget's New Theory concentrates on Piaget's very last projects. All three contend that in contrast to accepted versions of Piaget's theory, there is a relatively unknown Piaget and a markedly differently way to understand Genetic Epistemology. This brief review attempts to bracket such readings within (...) the purview of postmodern concerns with rationality. 2012 APA, all rights reserved). (shrink)

Das "Kleine Worterbuch der marxistisch-Ieninistischen Philoso­ phie", das 1966 in erster Auflage, 1974 in zweiter und 1975 in dritter Auflage erschienen ist, wird nun in einer vierten, iiberarbei­ teten und erweiterten Auflage herausgegeben. Die Tatsache, dal3 die hohe Auflage der zweiten und dritten Ausgabe vergriffen ist und die Nachfrage unvermindert anhalt, zeigt, da/3 dieses Nach­ schlagewerk sich inzwischen einen festen Platz im geistigen Leben erobert hat. Das wachsende Interesse breiter Kreise an der marxi­ stisch-Ieninistischen Philosophie ist als ein Ausdruck des (...) geistigen Reifeprozesses un serer Gesellschaft objektiv bedingt: Die weitere Gestaltung der entwickelten sozialistischen Gesellschaft in der DDR entsprechend dem Programm der SED und den Beschliissen des IX. Parteitages der SED, die sich vertiefende Zusammenarbeit der sozialistischen Gemeinschaft und auch der sich verscharfende ideo­ logische Kampf zwischen Sozialismus und Imperialismus erfordern einen hoheren Grad an theoretischen Kenntnissen, ideologischer Klarheit und politischer Bewul3theit. Immer mehr Menschen machen sich aus diesen Griinden in den verschiedensten Studienformen mit dem Marxismus-Leninismus und seinen philosophischen Grund­ lagen vertraut, um sich die Weltanschauung des Sozialismus anzu­ eignen, ihre Personlichkeit geistig zu bereichern und die vor ihnen stehenden Aufgaben mit grol3erer Sachkenntnis zu meistern. Mit der vorliegenden vierten, iiberarbeiteten und erweiterten Auf­ lage des,. Kleinen Worterbuchs der marxistisch-Ieninistischen Philo­ sophie" versuchen Autoren und Verlag, diesem wichtigen geseIl­ schaftlichen Bediirfnis noch besser zu entsprechen. (shrink)

In this paper we investigate risk prediction of criminal re-offense among juvenile defendants using general-purpose machine learning algorithms. We show that in our dataset, containing hundreds of cases, ML models achieve better predictive power than a structured professional risk assessment tool, the Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth, at the expense of not satisfying relevant group fairness metrics that SAVRY does satisfy. We explore in more detail two possible causes of this algorithmic bias that are related to biases in (...) the data with respect to two protected groups, foreigners and women. In particular, we look at the differences in the prevalence of re-offense between protected groups and the influence of protected group or correlated features in the prediction. Our experiments show that both can lead to disparity between groups on the considered group fairness metrics. We observe that methods to mitigate the influence of either cause do not guarantee fair outcomes. An analysis of feature importance using LIME, a machine learning interpretability method, shows that some mitigation methods can shift the set of features that ML techniques rely on away from demographics and criminal history which are highly correlated with sensitive features. (shrink)

We understand from the oldest sources that have reached us that according to their status, racial characteristics, culture, religion etc. people called their adressees with many different names besides their own names. The Arabic nicknames and titles, which are the main subject of our research result of this necessity. Before the formation of Islamic culture and civilization, different titles were used in all civilizations, especially in the Byzantine and Sassanid empires, for the members of the group, which were considered as (...) the elite class, apart from their names. Of course, the Arab society of jahiliyyah was also greatly influenced by his. In the political and bureaucratic structure created by the rapid spread of Islam and the interaction from different civilizations, a new naming, or rather nicknames, were made by using religious figures. This happened to such extend that the original names of many rulers remained in the shadows. The strict centralist structure of the Umayyad state required an authoritarian state administration that would not need excessive credit or definition. Therefore, the caliph did not need an extra nickname or title to define himself. At the same time, it would be appropriate to say that they never had any thoughts of praising the politicians and bureaucrats affiliated with them. The radical change in the political understanding with the Abbasid revolution also led to a great change in naming strategies. In fact, it is possible to explain the differentiation in this management approach through titles in the shortest way. The famous names of the Abbasid caliphs are nothing but nicknames. These names, which are adorned with the words of Allah, are actually an effort to show religious sensitivity to the subjects. The sensitivity in the language of diplomacy has come to the fore even more with the special divans established. The language of religion and the language of politics have been intertwined, and the caliph, who is the representative of the creator on earth, has been giving nicknames/titles around him. We see the actual situation of this practice as concrete in relation to the vassal states. During the Abbasid period, the level of relations between the states, which first emerged as semi-independent and later independent, and the caliphate differed according to time and conditions. In proportion to the political power of the Abbasid state, these heads of state were given different ranks. In this research, we try to reveal the background of the ranks given to the heads of vassal state established in the Khorasan and Transoxiana region and carrying out very important activities in the political sense. Additionally, we aim reveal to find out the political, religious and social structure of Tahirids, Saffarids, and Samanids, who are also very important in terms of Turkish history and serve as a bridge between the region and the center of the caliphate, Baghdad. We think that the subject discussed is important in order to discover the unknown aspects of the historical process in the political and bureaucratic formation of the Turkish empires established after the collapse of these three vassal states. In fact, it can be said that even today, the historical anatomy of the ranks used in terms of status determination and the arrangement of the political field in different Islamic geographies is being explored. Most importantly, in this study, we try discover the cornerstones of the communication dimension of the mawali with the Arab power. The location of the Transoxiana and Khorasan geographies before the Islamic conquests and the population fluidity accelerated by the Turkish migrations were an important factor in the political formation of the region during the Abbasid period. The historical background was taken into consideration in the titles given to the vassal state rulers. It is remarkable that the caliph gave the old Turkish title “ıhsid” to a Turkish leader of a state established in Egypt. There are many other examles such as this with regard to the vassal states in the East. The conclusion we have obtained from our study is that titles play a decisive role in the political connection between the center of the caliphate and the affiliated states. On the one hand, this regulates the balance between the center and local administrators, on the other hand, it determines the moral as well as the material rank of the sultans in the eyes of the people. In fact, the successes in the conquests led the caliphs to rank the vassal sultans with titles. This situation is a kind of password that determines the balance between the religious authority, the caliphate, and the worldly authority. (shrink)

Reviews the book, Beyond Piaget: A philosophical psychology by J. C. Brief . In Jean Piaget's long and prolific career he assumed many roles. In expounding a theory of cognitive development he raised philosophic questions by insisting on the importance of psychological states for explaining matters of epistemology. In accounting for the psychological nature of thought he stressed the influence of biological functions. And, when discussing the relationship between biology and psychology, he argued for the preeminence of logic and objective (...) truth, and restricted himself to scientific methods. This interdisciplinary endeavor resulted in a body of literature that is rich but also ambiguous. This book is an attempt to approach Piaget's theory on its own terms. The task of the book begins with the observation that Piaget's theory has consequences beyond his psychology. For Brief, a complete understanding of Piaget requires consideration of his views about the relationship between biological functions and psychological structures as well as his epistemological orientation. Brief aims to reconsider many of Piaget's claims and, specifically, to explicate Piaget's notions of action, object and intention; and he maintains that when Piaget's theory is explicated it ultimately has important implications for epistemology. Brief's own book is not for a novice; it is at times dense and difficult to read, and he assumes a great familiarity with Piaget's writings and with a number of philosophical distinctions. Further, Brief shifts from readings of Piaget, to criticisms, to statements of his own position—making it difficult to discern the thrust of his argument and giving the text a somewhat unorganized appearance. Throughout the text there is a need for a clear overview and concise summary statements. But these flaws should not dissuade the serious reader concerned with issues in philosophical psychology and Piagetian theory. Brief's insights present a challenging perspective on epistemological problems and the psychology of thought and understanding. 2012 APA, all rights reserved). (shrink)

T. 1. Entwicklung und Leitung des socialtischen Bewubtseins.--T. 2. Gemeinschafts- und Persönlichkeitsentwicklung im Sozialismus.--T. 3. Die Leninische Weiterentwicklung der marxistischen Philosophie.--T. 4. Wissenschaft und Socialismus.--T. 5. Leninsche Prinzipien der Auseinandersetzung mit der burgerlichen und revisiontischen Ideologie.