According to a bedrock assumption in the current methodology of armchair philosophy, we may refute a theory aiming at analyzing a concept by providing a counterexample in which it intuitively seems that a hypothetical or real situation does not fit with what the theory implies. In this paper, we shall argue that this assumption is at most either untenable or otherwise useless in bringing about what is commonly expected from it.

According to the dominant methodology of contemporary analytic philosophy, philosophical intuitions play evidential roles for or against philosophical theories. However, intuitions can play the supposed role successfully only if they are justified. Phenomenalism, as one of the proposed theories that aims to explain and argue for justifiedness of intuitions, claims that intuitions are justified because they have a certain phenomenal character: Intuitive contents seem to be true. Furthermore, it argues that sensory perception has similar phenomenal character, in virtue of which (...) it is justified. This analogy confirms the justifiedness of intuitions. In this paper, however, we shall argue that there is at least one another epistemological feature of sensory perception which is relevant to its justifiedness, that is self-correction. Although sensory perception is highly self – correcting, intuitions normally resist self – correction, even in the case of further recalcitrant evidences. The disanalogy threatens phenomenalist analogy for justifiedness of intuitions. (shrink)

There are numerous studies suggesting a substantial link between psychotic hallucinatory states and some forms of disordered imaginings. We have to figure out (1) what characteristic makes imagining, not other mental states, prone to induce hallucination, and (2) what underlies the (phenomenological/conceptual) transition from imagining X to the hallucinatory experience of X? In this paper, I will try to provide answers to these questions, in order to shed light on the nature of the so-called “misidentified” or “disordered” imaginative experience. To (...) achieve this, I emphasize the phenomenological aspects of hallucination and imagination. (shrink)

نسبی‌انگاری اخلاقی یکی از مکاتب کهن فرااخلاقی است که به وجود ویژگی‌های اخلاقی، و صدق و توجیه احکام اخلاقی می‌پردازد. با این حال، بخشی از بحث‌های مربوط به نسبی‌انگاری متوجّه معناشناسی جملات نسبی است. نظریات نسبی‌انگارانۀ سنّتی زمینه‌گرا هستند، به این معنا که احکام اخلاقی را دارای عنصری می‌دانند که به نحوی ارجاع به گوینده دارد. این دیدگاه نسبی‌انگاری را با چالش‌هایی مواجه می‌کند، از جمله این‌که اختلاف نظر که یکی از اسباب عمدۀ گرایش به نسبی‌انگاری است، به سوء تفاهم (...) فروکاسته می‌شود. برخی نسبی‌انگاران اخیراً تلاش کرده‌اند تا نظریاتی ارائه دهند که با ثابت دانستن محتوای احکام، دچار مشکلات زمینه‌گرایی سنتی نباشد. یکی از این تلاش‌ها، نظریۀ نسبی‌انگاریِ دربارۀ خود (de se relativism) اندی ایگن است. ایگن با ترکیب نظریۀ دیوید لویس درباب محتوای باور، نظریۀ رابرت استالنیکر درباب اظهار، و نظریۀ استعدادی دیوید لویس درباب ارزش، بر آن است که نظریه‌ای نسبی‌انگارانه دربارۀ ارزش ارائه کند که با طبیعی‌انگاری، درونی‌انگاری احکام اخلاقی، و شناختی‌انگاری سازگار باشد، و از اشکالات دیگری که خودِ او بر زمینه‌گرایی وارد می‌کند مبرّا باشد. در این مقاله نظریۀ ایگن بررسی می‌شود و نشان داده می‌شود که نظریۀ او نه‌تنها از اشکالات وارد بر زمینه‌گرایی رها نیست، بلکه به دلیل پذیرش نظریۀ لویس در باب محتوای باور بار بیشتری بر دوش دارد که آن را نسبت به دیگر نظریات نسبی‌انگارانه مرجوح می‌سازد. -/- . (shrink)

Vague language refers to expressions with unspecified meaning (for instance, 'I kind of want that job'), and is an important but often overlooked part of linguistic communication. This book is a comparative study of vague language based on naturally occurring data of a rare combination: L1 (American) and L2 (Chinese and Persian) speakers in academic settings. The findings indicate that L2 learners have diverse and culturally specific needs for vague language, and generally use vague words in a more concentrated fashion (...) compared with L1s. The book explores the interconnection and continuum between the linguistic realizations of a vague term and the functions it serves, and how 'elasticity' underpins the frequency and functions of vague language. The implication is that vague language may be integrated into the curriculum of English language teaching as part of L2 speakers' communicative competence. This book will be of great interest to researchers in the fields of intercultural education and applied linguistics. (shrink)

Beginning with ʿusūls, that is, the ḥadith booklets which were originally formed to record the Imam’s words back in the late second hijrī century, Shīʿī ḥadith scholarship has developed a comprehensive and unique literature over the last twelve centuries. One of the unique features of Twelver Shīʿīte ḥadith approach is the fact that the systematic application of isnad-centered criticism in the study and evaluation of ḥadiths with regard to accuracy was begun to be practiced after the 7th hijrī century and (...) gained wide acceptance only after that time. To put it differently, the text and the textual criteria, instead of the chain of transmitters were central in the evaluation of ḥadith reports for a long time in the history of Shīʿī ḥadith scholarship. This centrality of textual criteria employed in the evaluation of ḥadith reports continued throughout the Shīʿī ḥadith history and it reached its most effective position in the last century. Despite the decisive role the text and textual criteria have played in the study of ḥadiths in Shīʿa, textual criticism has received little scholarly attention so far, which makes this topic a significant research question. Furthermore, in order to examine the exact meaning of textual criticism present in Islamic tradition as comprehensively as possible, it is a necessity to approach it not only from Sunnī perspective but also with an approach that includes all the other madhhabs. Correspondingly, this study, Şīʿa’da Metin Tenkidi [Textual Criticism In Shīʿa] has explored the different approaches and practices of textual criticism as employed over the course of Shīʿīte ḥadith tradition. The social and political unrest, especially during the 2nd and 3rd hijrī centuries before the Shīʿa completed its development as a systematic Islamic madhhab, led to the emergence of ġhulāt, the extremist groups ascribing divine characteristics to ʿAlī and his family members. As an effective way of propagation and attracting more supporters, such groups used some reports fabricated in accordance with their views, and attributed them to the Imams of Shīʿa. The widespread practice of fabricating ḥadiths led way to the formation of a group reacting against such extremist ideas as well. The first chapter of the thesis provides a brief overview of the 3rd century Shīʿī theologians’ critiques of the ġhulāt-induced ḥadiths, and explores the initial attempts of early-period Akhbārīs, the scholars of so-called Qom School, to eliminate the fabricated reports as the first practices of textual criticism made by Twelver Shīʿītes. Having lived in the 3rd hijrī century, al-Faḍl b. Shāẕān and Ibn Qiba were among the early Shīʿī theologians, and they developed significant approaches with regard to textual criticism in ḥadith scholarship. They claimed that some factoids attributed to Shīʿa were actually originated from the reports of ġhulāt, and thus criticized them. The uncompromising attitude of Qom School towards the ġhulātis presented by Imāmiyya as an argument for the elimination of fabricated ḥadiths and not including these kind of reports in al-Kutub al-Arbaʿa. Indeed, it is obvious that the scholars of early Qom School employed a text-based criteria in eliminating the reports containing extremist ideas, such as ascribing divinity to other beings except Allah. As a matter of fact, such extremist ideas of ġhulātdo not appear as ḥadith reports in Shīʿī compilations. While the absence of such reports can be seen as an argument for the existence of a critical approach based on the content, it is rather impossible to determine the exact criteria used and the status of textual criticism due to lack of data concerning its methodology. Besides, it cannot be claimed that these efforts were successful in eliminating the fabricated reports of ġhulātcompletely and in preventing their circulation among the Shīʿī ḥadith sources. Additionally, when it comes to the problem of imāmah -the identity and the features of the leaders after Prophet Mohammad-, the critique of the fabricated reports was not practiced in the same meticulous manner, which is because of the fact that its imāmahparadigm is the core concept shaping Imāmiyyah as a madhhab and Shīʿī scholars failed to be objective in evaluating the ġhulātfabricated reports on this issue. Consequently, most of such reports escaped textual criticism. The second chapter examines the approaches and practices of Baghdad, Ḥilla and Jabal ʿĀmil Usūlī schools, which had active roles between 5th and 11th hijrī centuries respectively, towards textual criticism. The most prominent representatives of Baghdad Usūlī School are al-Shayḫ al-Mufīd, al-Sharīf al-Murtaḍā and Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṭūsī. Drawing on the works of these three scholars, it was aimed to be exposed the fact that text-related issues are the main determinants for evaluating, accepting or rejecting ḥadith reports in practise of Baghdad Usūlī School. In this respect, the key concept, used by these scholars is “qarīna”. According to their approaches, “khabar al-wāhid” is acceptable only when it has one of the qarīnas which are being coherent with the Qur'an, Sunnah, reason or ijmāʿ. The reports contradicting those qarīnas were claimed to have been rejected, at least theoretically. On the other hand, the role of sanad was not overlooked completely by scholars of Baghdad. It is obvious that isnad was an important tool in evaluating contradictory reports, as in the practise of al-Ṭūsī in particular. As I argue, Bagdad Usūlī School had serious doubts concerning the accuracy of sanads of reports, which made the scholars employ textual criticism instead of isnad,as the main method in evaluating ḥadith reports. Increased emphasis on the role of isnad with the rise of Ḥilla School in 7th hijrī century resulted in a decrease in the efficiency of qarīnas related to matn. I am of the opinion that the most influential factor for this is the fact the Shīʿa communities had to live under Sunnī rule for long years, especially with the collapse of the Buwayhids in the second half of the 5th hijrī century. It is inconceivable that Shīʿa, undergoing an unproductive era after Buwayhids, was not affected by Sunnī understanding, which was at the height of its scholarly productivity back then. Thus, with the Ḥilla School, isnad began to gain a substantial position in Shīʿī ḥadith methodology in ways similar to the isnad-centered Sunnī ḥadith methodology. Moreover, the isnad-centered Usūlīsm, beginning with the Ḥilla School, reached its heyday especially with al-Shahīd al-Thānī, who was one of the prominent scholars of Jabal ʿĀmil of Lebanon. This is due to the different approach of al-Shahīd al-Thānī favoured in ḥadith evaluation process. In Ḥilla School, despite the increasing role of isnad, matn was still important. However, al-Shahīd al-Thānī, who wrote Shīʿa’s first ḥadith methodology book, rejected the role of matn in the consideration of ḥadith reports almost completely. As I argue, that dysfunction of textual criticism, which is one of two main methods of ḥadith criticism, accelerated the rise of Systematic Akhbārism, which gained prominence in the 11th hijrī century and objected to all forms of criticising ḥadith reports. The third chapter investigates the contemporary practises of textual criticism. During the last century, in addition to the classical approach of Usūlīsm, significant improvements have taken place with regard to the understanding of textual criticism because of various historical and sociological factors. Within the scope of such recent practices, there have been scholarly attempts to identify and eliminate the ḥadith reports that were fabricated -especially- by ġhulātin the early period of Islam and found their ways into the main ḥadith sources. In this regard, it is crucial that the first examples of mawḍūʿātbooks, including the fabricated reports, have been compiled. Especially in al-Mawḍūʿātof Hāshim Maʿrūf al-Ḥasanī, textual criticism seems to be the main method used in order to identify the fabricated reports. However, it is not possible to say that such attempts have found wide acceptance among the Shīʿa scholars yet. To conclude, this study demonstrates that the textual criticism has always been used as a method in evaluating ḥadith reports throughout the history of Shīʿī ḥadith scholarship. However, there are differences with regard to the scale of emphasis put on textual criticism and to what extent it has been employed as a methodology in each school. Even in the periods dominated by al-Shahīd al-Thānī and his successors and shortly afterwards by Akhbārīs, textual criticism was applied to the reports related to doctrinal issues while its practice area was significantly limited for the reports on Islamic Jurisprudence. (shrink)

This paper situates itself in Reiner Schürmann's theory that the metaphysical representations have hegemonically governed epochs of western history. It argues that the contemporary alertness about the acute loss of affinity between rhetoric and philosophy reports the end of metaphysics. Specifically, the paper discusses that the phenomenon of globalization of scientific rationalism, with its homogenizing effects requires an anarchic mode of thinking and acting and a certain political life that refuses ultimate representations. As such, the proper epochal response to the (...) rift between rhetoric and philosophy is an anarchic one. The ease with which a whole age continues to graze, in spite of exterminations still alive in our memories and planetary asphyxiations already in our throats, gives ground for perplexity (Reiner Schürmann, Broken Hegemonies). (shrink)

A brief and selective conceptual glance at the history of sociological foundation shows that a certain assumption about the `ultimate referentiality' of society has been at the heart of sociology. The late modern responses to, and reactions against, foundationalism in various schools in the human and social sciences provide a springboard for a new beginning in sociological inquiry. Drawing on radical phenomenology and postmetaphysical hermeneutical philosophy, this article summons attention to the concept of ultimate referentiality as the point of moorage (...) that supposedly secures our theoretical postulates in a presumed locus in the `real' — namely, `society'. Given our late modern crisis of metaphysical claims about ultimate foundations, the article makes an invitation to an interpretative sociological renewal with an acute sensitivity toward praxis. The article provisionally makes a number of suggestions with respect to the modes of sociological practice that would render the discipline attuned to our age. (shrink)

"Through an original and close reading of the key literature regarding both revolutionary violence and nonviolence, this book collapses the widely-assumed concepts of violence and nonviolence as mutually exclusive. By revealing that violence and nonviolence are braided concepts arising from human action, Peyman Vahabzadeh submits that in many cases the actions deemed to be either violent or nonviolent might actually produce outcomes that are not essentially different. Vahabzadeh offers a conceptual phenomenology of the key thinkers and theorists of both (...) revolutionary violence and various approaches to nonviolence. Arguing that violence is inseparable from civilizations, Violence and Nonviolence concludes by making a number of original conceptualizations regarding the relationship between violence and nonviolence, exploring the possibility of a nonviolent future and proposing to understand the relationship between the two concepts as concentric, not opposites."--. (shrink)

در این مقاله با تبیین نظریۀ تبعیت از صدق نوزیک و بررسی اشکالات وارد بر آن، به دو روایت اولیه و اصلاح‌شدۀ سوسا از شرطی التزامی امنیت، به‌عنوان شرط لازم دانستن پرداخته شده است. پس از پرداختن به روایت دقیق سوسا از امنیت، برخی اشکالات بدان بررسی شده‌، نشان داده می‌شود که برخی از این اشکال‌ها بر نظریه سوسا واردند. درعین‌حال، من تلاش کرده‌ام نشان دهم که برخی از این اشکال‌ها بر روایت دقیق این شرط وارد نیستند و نیز این (...) شرط نمی‌تواند از پس برخی مثال‌های نقض وارد بر نظریه نوزیک برآید. -/- In this paper, I will explicate Nozick's truth-tracking theory of knowledge and objections raised against it, and I will then deal with Sosa's primary and reformed versions of the subjunctive conditional of safety as a necessary condition of knowledge. I will then consider some objections to Sosa's view, showing that some of these counterexamples work against Sosa's view. However, I have sought to show that some of these objections do not work against a more precise version of this condition. I have also shown that this condition cannot deal with some counterexamples of Nozick's theory. (shrink)

Crossing Borders: Essays In Honour of Ian H. Angus is a collection of original and cutting-edge essays by eighteen outstanding and diverse Canadian and International scholars that engage with Professor Ian Angus's rich contributions to three distinct, albeit overlapping, fields: Canadian Studies, Phenomenology and Critical Theory, and Communication and Media Studies. These contributions are distinct, unique, and have had resonance across the intellectual landscape over the thirty years that Angus has been teaching communications, philosophy, Canadian Studies, theory, and humanities first (...) in the United States and then in Canada. (shrink)

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between digital literacy and the quality of life of the elderly in Arak. The research is a descriptive survey in terms of applied purpose and terms of method and nature. The statistical population of the present study included all the elderly in Arak who were at least 64 years and older; 376 participants were selected using the sampling method. Participants were assessed with the help of digital literacy and quality-of-life questionnaires. To analyze the (...) data, descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation) and inferential statistics (analysis of covariance) were used using the SPSS-21 software. The results showed that all parameters of digital literacy had a direct and significant effect on the quality of life of the elderly. Among the quality-of-life parameters, the impact of the physical environment health was less than that of the others. (shrink)

As a distinguished philosopher and novelist in the second half of the twentieth century, Iris Murdoch addressed the significance of ethics in her framework of thought.. Murdoch’s moral philosophy was widely acknowledged as a challenge to the prevailing ethical traditions which, she asserted, had failed to present an accurate picture of morality. As a philosopher and literary figure, Murdoch maintained that not only moral philosophy but also literature should depict perceptible pictures of man’s morality. The purpose of this paper is (...) to closely explore Murdoch’s perspective towards the weight of love in moral philosophy. Since she was concerned with ethical issues and man’s confrontation with ethical questions in a world in which religious values and beliefs had been shattered, Murdoch deployed literature to convey the concepts she advocated in her moral philosophy. She contended that literature was capable of sustaining and improving man’s morality. Murdoch was a prolific novelist and playwright authoring 26 novels and 6 plays in which she developed and reflected her philosophical arguments through the portrayal of her intended ethical behavior. This tendency is mostly highlighted in The Flight from the Enchanter, and The Severed Head in which Murdoch resorts to Plato’s theory of Forms and his idea of the Good to combat the conventional moral philosophy of the twentieth century. Based on the findings of this article, Murdoch intends to depict the significance of freedom and love as the prerequisites of morality in any philosophical system. (shrink)

Human gait is a complex activity that requires high coordination between the central nervous system, the limb, and the musculoskeletal system. More research is needed to understand the latter coordination's complexity in designing better and more effective rehabilitation strategies for gait disorders. Electroencephalogram and functional near-infrared spectroscopy are among the most used technologies for monitoring brain activities due to portability, non-invasiveness, and relatively low cost compared to others. Fusing EEG and fNIRS is a well-known and established methodology proven to enhance (...) brain–computer interface performance in terms of classification accuracy, number of control commands, and response time. Although there has been significant research exploring hybrid BCI involving both EEG and fNIRS for different types of tasks and human activities, human gait remains still underinvestigated. In this article, we aim to shed light on the recent development in the analysis of human gait using a hybrid EEG-fNIRS-based BCI system. The current review has followed guidelines of preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-Analyses during the data collection and selection phase. In this review, we put a particular focus on the commonly used signal processing and machine learning algorithms, as well as survey the potential applications of gait analysis. We distill some of the critical findings of this survey as follows. First, hardware specifications and experimental paradigms should be carefully considered because of their direct impact on the quality of gait assessment. Second, since both modalities, EEG and fNIRS, are sensitive to motion artifacts, instrumental, and physiological noises, there is a quest for more robust and sophisticated signal processing algorithms. Third, hybrid temporal and spatial features, obtained by virtue of fusing EEG and fNIRS and associated with cortical activation, can help better identify the correlation between brain activation and gait. In conclusion, hBCI system is not yet much explored for the lower limb due to its complexity compared to the higher limb. Existing BCI systems for gait monitoring tend to only focus on one modality. We foresee a vast potential in adopting hBCI in gait analysis. Imminent technical breakthroughs are expected using hybrid EEG-fNIRS-based BCI for gait to control assistive devices and Monitor neuro-plasticity in neuro-rehabilitation. However, although those hybrid systems perform well in a controlled experimental environment when it comes to adopting them as a certified medical device in real-life clinical applications, there is still a long way to go. (shrink)

In this critical notice I review the main ideas presented in Peyman Vahabzadeh's thought-provoking investigation into the genesis of new social movements, Articulated Experiences: Towards a Radical Phenomenology of Contemporary Social Movements. I examine two central features of Vahabzadeh's work: (i) its notion of ?ultimate referentiality;? and (ii) the centrality of the role accorded to language in Vahabzadeh's overall theory. I argue that in his stipulation that language is the most fundamental mediating factor in articulation and acts of identification, (...) Vahabzadeh implicitly characterizes language as precisely the sort of privileged essential universality that his theory seeks to avoid. The repercussions of this criticism are not only relevant to the thesis of Articulated Experiences, they are also relevant to the thesis Vahabzadeh defends in his contribution to the present volume. (shrink)

1835 yılında Manastır’da dünyaya gelen Sâlih Fâik Bey, Encümen-i Şuarâ şâirlerindendir. Memuriyeti nedeniyle İstanbul, Burdur, Gümüşhane gibi çeşitli illerde bulunmuştur. Biri matbû, üçü yazma olmak üzere dört eseri mevcuttur. Bunlar; Arûz-i Türkî, Elfiyye-i Seniyye fi’l-Âdâbi’l-Ahmediyye, Peymâne ve Dîvân’dır. Fâik Bey 1899 yıllında İstanbul’da vefat etmiştir. Eserleri yaşadığı dönemin dînî, siyâsî, edebî ve toplumsal özelliklerini yansıtması bakımından önemlidir. Bu çalışmada Manastırlı Sâlih Fâik Bey’in hayatı ve eserleri hakkında bilgi verildikten sonra, dîvânında rastladığımız dikkate değer hususlar ile devrinin mühim dergilerinden biri olan (...) Hazîne-i Fünûn Dergisi’nde şairin yayımlanan şiirlerine yer verilecektir. (shrink)