Arts and Humanities, Misc

The general idea of strong foundationalism is that knowledge has a foundation in well warranted beliefs which do not derive any warrant from other beliefs and that all our other beliefs depend on these foundational ones for their warrant. Although inerrancy posits Scripture as a solid foundation for theology, the idea that the doctrine of biblical inerrancy involves a strong foundationalist epistemology is deeply problematic. In fact, inerrancy does not require any particular view of the structure of knowledge, and notable (...) sources on inerrancy tout it in ways inconsistent with most forms of strong foundationalism. (shrink)

Este volumen contiene los trabajos presentados en el I Simposio de Pensamiento Contemporáneo, celebrado en la Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja (UTPL) durante los días 23 y 24 de enero de 2019 y cuyo tema central fue las «Nuevas Tecnologías en la Educación» (SPC–NTE). Este Simposio tuvo como objetivo fomentar la interacción entre personas de diferentes formaciones e intereses en la discusión de problemas y soluciones relevantes para la educación en la era digital, a fin de intercambiar ideas sobre prácticas (...) e investigaciones que busquen comprender, mejorar y ampliar el uso de las nuevas tecnologías en los procesos de enseñanza–aprendizaje en los más diferentes contextos de enseñanza. 28 trabajos analizan abordan temáticas de especial interés para los futuros docentes, así como para quienes ya se desempeñan como tales en los diversos niveles educativos. Estos textos son instantáneas breves, ágiles y claras de las contribuciones teóricas o de experiencias pedagógicas que tratan sobre ambientes, softwares y hardwares para apoyar la enseñanza y aprendizaje; TIC en la educación universitaria; técnicas y estrategias lúdicas en educación; experiencias pedagógicas con las TIC y humanidades digitales en la educación. (shrink)

In the last decades a growing body of literature in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Cognitive Science (CS) has approached the problem of narrative understanding by means of computational systems. Narrative, in fact, is an ubiquitous element in our everyday activity and the ability to generate and understand stories, and their structures, is a crucial cue of our intelligence. However, despite the fact that - from an historical standpoint - narrative (and narrative structures) have been an important topic of investigation in (...) both these areas, a more comprehensive approach coupling them with narratology, digital humanities and literary studies was still lacking. With the aim of covering this empty space, in the last years, a multidisciplinary effort has been made in order to create an international meeting open to computer scientist, psychologists, digital humanists, linguists, narratologists etc.. This event has been named CMN (for Computational Models of Narrative) and was launched in the 2009 by the MIT scholars Mark A. Finlayson and Patrick H. Winston1. (shrink)

This paper proposes a new academic discipline of computational entrepreneurship, which centers on: i) An exponentially growing (and less expensive) computing power, to the extent that almost everybody in a modern society can own and use that; ii) Omnipresent high-speed Internet connectivity, wired or wireless, representing our modern day’s economic connectomics; iii) Growing concern of exploiting “serendipity” for a strategic commercial advantage; and, iv) Growing capabilities of lay people in performing calculations for their informed decisions in taking fast-moving entrepreneurial opportunities. (...) Computational entrepreneurship has slowly become a new mode of operation for business ventures, and will likely bring the academic discipline of entrepreneurship back to mainstream economics. (shrink)

In representing an interdisciplinary perspective on shame, this edited collection as a whole ultimately reflects shame as a richly layered experience by focusing as a whole on the following three themes: 1) questions about theory and method in the science and study of shame, 2) how the context of culture and politics, broadly construed, affect our understanding of what shame is and who we are in the face of shame, and 3) normative considerations regarding shame and its importance to understanding (...) ourselves as individuals and in relation to our communities. More specifically, this edited collection aims to weave together the various threads on shame within the academic discourse into an intricate and deep understanding of what shame is and its implications on our lives. It does so by collecting and organizing the essays contained within in order to inspire in the reader possible answers to the following questions: 1) how ought the science of shame identify its object of study, 2) how ought the science of shame be pursued, 3) what methods are appropriate for a rigorous scientific study of shame, 4) does a method of study determine or influence a theory of shame or vice versa, 5) how do culture and politics affect the value and import of shame, 6) what is the relationship between culture and politics in the construction of shamed identities, and 7) how is shame related to a normative understanding of ourselves as individual persons, which includes an understanding of ourselves as moral and epistemic agents within a community. (shrink)

This research focuses on Schizophrenia and Clairaudience that is part of doctoral research for a Doctorate of Metaphysical Sciences at the University of Metaphysics. The mental illness known as Schizophrenia has been known for centuries. There are various symptoms associated with this mental illness upon which a diagnosis is based. The exact causes of the mental illness Schizophrenia remain unknown, as does the actual part of the individual which is effect by the illness. The most prominent and definable symptom of (...) Schizophrenia remains to be auditory hallucinations. Another explanation for individual's being able to hear voices, is that of clairaudience, a psychic ability. Clairaudient ability has a positive connotation upon the ability to hear voices, whereas the diagnosis of Schizophrenia is most commonly treated with pharmaceutical drugs to reduce or eliminate symptoms. This paper involves information about Schizophrenia, how it is perceived and treated. It also discusses various views of clairaudience, and how it is effective and manageable. A new approach is required to the medical industry when individuals are being treated for a diagnosis of Schizophrenia. (shrink)

This paper focuses on the question of filtration through the perspective of “too much information”. It concerns Western society within the context of new media and digital culture. The main aim of this paper is to apply a philosophical reading on the video game concept of Selection for Societal Sanity within the problematics of cultural filtration, control of behaviors and desire, and a problematization of trans-individuation that the selected narrative conveys. The idea of Selection for Societal Sanity, which derives from (...) the first postmodern video game Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001), is applied into a philosophical framework based on select concepts from Bernard Stiegler’s writing and incorporating them with current events such as post-truth or fake news in order to explore the role of techne and filtration within social organizations and individual psyches. Alternate forms of behavior, which contest cultural paradigms, are re-problematized as tension between calculability and incalculability, or market value versus social bonding. (shrink)

This research aimed to explain the defense of oral interactions in the presence of information and communication technologies such as WhatsApp (WA) as well as to explore some of the positive contributions of WA used in building the Real Life Communication, especially in the learning environment. By applying the Exploratory design, this research involved 4 participants from various educational backgrounds as a purposively selected data source indicated as WA users at once. Data were collected through Focus Group Discussion, Interview, and (...) Observation and analyzed by several stages i.e. data reduction, displaying data, categorizing, and verifying and concluding. The results showed that oral interactions can decrease both in the language community and learning environment as the dominant use of WA that is not wise. Nevertheless, the use of WA applications also had some positive contributions in building a real relationship. Finally, the assumption that the negative impact of using the WA application should be able to change the mindset and positive attitude of the scholars in initiating and defending an oral interaction in the learning environment. (shrink)

Debating on Second Language Acquisition is not merely in terms of concept but also the real phenomena which postulate each research result. It needs more investigation on SLA due to the various realities on how children and adults acquire and learn any language. This research aims to describe how children and adults acquire and learn their first and second language. Participants consisted of children and adults whose ages determined by the researcher based on the purposive sampling technique. They were all (...) six persons and chosen based on certain characteristics. Content analysis technique was applied in order to analyze all data gained. The result showed that since human alive inside mother’s womb especially at up to the age of three months, a fetus has tried to acquire sounds subconsciously. Language proficiency is really determined by three factors of Phased Process Approach namely Subconscious Acquisition, Conscious Acquisition, and Learning. The ideal time for learning something is begun from the age of 2 or 3 years old, by the fact that children have had the ability to bear a meaning on any input that they catch. The learning process has been begun within the process of acquisition. Based on the findings, it is clear that the children acquire the language step by step based on the development of the brain. Children acquire language is just the same as adult in acquiring the language although there will be some constraints faced by adult concern with the first language because adult has had the strong basis of the first language just than children. (shrink)

This essay discusses the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist within Lutheran theology, in dialogue with Roman Catholic theology. It starts by making some remarks on the controversial nature of the subject, the substance of the Roman Catholic doctrine of the “Eucharistic Sacrifice”, and on Luther’s removal of the Offertory, and his revision of the Eucharistic prayer or the Canon, before making some comments on the various views on the “Eucharistic Sacrifice” amongst the Church Fathers, the ecumenical and catholic aim of (...) Confessio Augustana, and the Lutheran emphasis on God as giver and creation (including man) as receiver. After that, it returns to the main point, arguing for a “Eucharistic Sacrifice” within Lutheran theology, with emphasis on our participation in Christ, building on the contributions of Wolhart Pannenberg and Joseph Ratzinger, and against Lutheran critiques, here represented by John T. Pless. (shrink)

The article is meant to show the relation between being logical and being moral.

Articolo in occasione del quindicesimo anniversario della morte di Carmelo Bene.

Encyclopedia living reference work entry about Jacob Burckhardt, his ife, his main works and his historiographical method. In particular the entry focuses on Burckhardt's masterpiece, "The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy".

لقد بُذلت محاولات عديدة لتجاوز غموض قضايا العلوم الطبيعية والإنسانية من قبل المناطقة وفلاسفة اللغة، لا سيما خلال القرن العشرين، لكن تبرز منها محاولتان أكثر أهمية من غيرهما؛ تجلت الأولى في تطوير المنطق الرمزي الكلاسيكي ثنائي القيم إلى ما يُعرف بالمنطق متعدد القيم. ووفقًا لهذا الأخير لم يعد الحكم المنطقي – على أية قضية – مقصورًا على قيمتي الصدق التقليديتين: صادقة & كاذبة، كما يقضي بذلك قانون الثالث المرفوع، بل بات لدينا عدد لا متناه من القيم المتصلة التي تتوسط بين (...) الصدق التام والكذب التام. ورغم النجاح النسبي لهذه المحاولة – التي ما زالت تخضع للتطوير والتعديل – إلا أن المشكلة الأساسية ما زالت تطل برأسها في كل استخدام للكلمات وقضايا اللغة، فإذا كان المنطق متعدد القيم قد نجح في التعبير الواضح عن غموض المعرفة، إلا أنه لم يُبدد الغموض ذاته. أما المحاولة الثانية فقد تمثلت في نزعة التقييم الفائق، التي تفترض وجود عدد من التقييمات المقبولة لكل مصطلح غامض أو قضية غامضة. وليست هذه التقييمات في الحقيقة مجرد كيانات خالصة لا علاقة لها بالواقع، بل إن كل تقييم منها – كما تفترض النزعة – هو بمثابة تحديد لكيان واقعي نشير إليه بالاسم أو المصطلح محل الدراسة، ومن ثم فهو يعكس موجودًا فعليًا له حدوده الدقيقة المميزة له عن غيره. ويلزم عن ذلك أننا إذا كنا نقبل العديد من التقييمات المختلفة والمتنوعة لمصطلح واحد، فعلينا أن نقبل أيضًا وجود العديد من الكيانات الواقعية التي يشير إليها ذلك المصطلح الواحد. هذا ما نسعى إلى معالجته في هذا البحث، انطلاقًا من فرضٍ رئيس مؤداه أن ما واجه المنطق الكلاسيكي من مشكلات أدت إلى تطويره، لاسيما مشكلة الغموض، قد واجه بالمثل المنطق متعدد القيم، ولابد وأن يواجه أيضًا أية مقاربة مهما اختلفت أدواتها؛ فالغموض فيما نزعم ظاهرة إبستمولوجية في المحل الأول، مردودها إلى الذات العارفة وقصور إمكاناتها الإدراكية والقياسية، لا إلى الوجود ذاته. وبعبارة أخرى، نزعم من خلال هذه الورقة أن أية مقاربة لمشكلة الغموض ما هي إلا حلقة من حلقات العلاقة الجدلية اللامنتهية بين الإنسان والطبيعة، أو فلنقل بين ما هو مدرك وما هو موجود بالفعل. وقد ركزنا على قضايا وتصورات الجغرافيا كنموذج للتطبيق باعتبارها أحد أقرب العلوم الإنسانية إلى العلوم الطبيعية، وإن كنا نرى أن عمومية مشكلة الغموض – بأبعادها المختلفة – تُحيل أي علم إلى علم إنساني. (shrink)

The American system of education makes important and sometimes unjustified assumptions that were questioned and criticized nearly a hundred years ago by author and educational theorist Albert Jay Nock. This essay discusses Nock’s theory of American education and finds that certain of these assumptions stand greatly in need of the support of evidence.

Lesbian organizations have frequently cited the concept of a Lesbian Nation as an ideal community where women could be freed from the oppression of relationships with men. The term was used in speeches made by lesbian activists beginning in the 1970s. However, lesbian militant activities have increasingly merged with the overall gay civil rights movement, so that most activists have preferred to use the term Queer Nation to refer to the movement in general.

During the Islamic Golden Age, a variety of thinking methods flourished amongst Muslim scientists and philosophers each of which would contribute human civilization. The thinking methods of Muslim thinkers include a variety of approaches: mathematical method, empirical method, reason, mystical intuition, and philart or sciart. Kharazmi is the most critical figure in mathematics as the basis of empirical method. Ibn al-Haitham constitutes the crucial figure in the scientific method. Farabi as a profound philosopher focused on imagination and art for distributing (...) wisdom and reason among public. In his virtuous city, artists have this task and they are called the conveyors of religion. Suhravardi concentrated on intuition besides wisdom and reason. In addition, Suhravardi typified the artist of Farabi’s virtuous city. In Suhravardi’s mystical treatises, he allegorized intelligible happiness. A highly developed mathematics is the first crucial component of the scientific method. Such being the case, Kharazmi took the first critical step to practice the scientific method. Kharazmi as an influential figure in mathematics translated the Indian system into Arabic and introduced the decimal positional number system in a comprehensive guide. The logical mathematical process, named algorithm, and a whole new branch of mathematics, called algebra, are indebted to Kharazmi. He also worked with both what now is called linear equations and quadratic equations, reduced every equation to its simplest form. Through arithmetic and algebra, Kharazmi affected other sciences and their methods. Ibn al-Haitham is a key scientist developing empirical method based on observation and experiment. He is considered the greatest Muslim physicist and the most significant figure in the history of optics between antiquity and the seventeenth century. Farabi as a philosopher sets out a socio-political plan for the virtuous city focusing on reason and art. In his plan, the wise men stand in the highest position and the artists and rhetoricians stand in the second level of the city. The artists of virtuous city are the conveyors of religion, bringing intelligible truth to people’s mind through their imagination. Besides the reason, Suhravardi remarked on intuition and mystical experiment. Furthermore, he himself exemplifies the philartist of Farabi’s virtuous city and allegorizes intelligible truth and happiness in his fictions. In the field of sense perception, ten interior and exterior senses are allegorized by ten towers, ten wide straps, ten graves, ten flyers, ten wardens, five chambers and five gates. In the theory of emanation, the ten Separate Intellects are allegorized by the ten old men, whereas the Active Intellect by the father, the master, and the Red Intellect. In cosmology, the spheres are symbolized by nine shells, eleven layers of a basin, eleven mountains, sons, and mills. In his works, it is art that allows philosophy to be held up against peoples’ minds; and it is philosophy that allows art to be held up against supposed realities. Quranic approaches could be seen in both Ibn Tufail and Suhravardi. Quranic approaches have no less than four variants: 1. General approach 2. Quotation or Direct approach 3. Mystic Allegory 4. Aesthetic Approach -/- In Muslim cultures and societies arose various mystic schools such as schools of Bayazid Bastami, Khwaja Abdollah Ansari, Sheikh Ahmad Jami, Rumi, Sheikh Safi al-Din Ardabili, and Shah Nematollah Vali, none of them exerted a socio-political impact but Sheikh Safi al-Din. His mystic trend established Safavid Dynasty entailing the political system, major institutions, and social arrangement. In this respect, he is esteemed as the hallmark of mysticism rehabilitating its image. A set of thinking methods is required for surviving and developing civilization. However dramatically important in today’s world is that the balance ought to be maintained. -/- . (shrink)

The aims of this book is clear and straightforward. -/- It was motivated to convert an inhumane or insipid experience with the various sources of global ranking into the kind of humanly and cultural experience within our daily lifestyle. Their outlook from presentation is masked with the number purely and perhaps through a myriad of complicated data or ranking information. The concept or self-identification within the experience or exposure would be less substantial or hard to get palpable. -/- My attempt (...) to improve this aspect of contemporary practice certainly will fall short, but you can sense in some paragraphs or titles. I wrote this small piece of book in the end to take care of human integrity and stories for advancing the inherence and liveliness of interested actors or consumers despite all the wind-heads from the turf of existing ranking sources. The idea hopefully might be compatible with brand personification for the people interested in this area of world phenomenon. -/- The structure of book was organized in less complete way, but might look cursory and spontaneous. The dealings obviously are never exhaustive unlike the major commercial providers, rather more akin to the consulting webs primarily in direct contact with the customers. Nevertheless, the ranking results finalized through this book is original in its methodology or in terms of data collection although the presentation is little in scope and mainly suggestive as a kind of ranking philosopher. Given my status as a college professor, it would be an unusual chemistry or brought me to shimmer at some point of meditation on how I could rank fairly and meaningfully. -/- I merely hope that the readership can generously take this attempt as a pilot work or as the kind of post-modern work Avant Gardo or civilization strolls from understanding, criticism. It might be even through a bootstrap with the universal constitutionalism or communicative democracy. The book had been prepared mainly by editing into each section the previous work of articles and flowing through each of my brief pertaining to the purported ranking. Nevertheless, -/- I am presenting an up-to-date elaboration on the graduate or post-graduate study and KIOSK on research doctorates. As followed by section four, the conventional spectrum of global CU rankings was discussed with a new attempt to measure them. Lastly, a reflection and piece of thought were wrought through little pages titled Epilogue at the end of this booklet. (shrink)

Somewhat traumatized by the Galileo Affair the Church until recently showed low profile in the conflicts with science, evolutionary theory included. The talk presents a categorization of possible relationships between science and religion by distinguishing between "Galilean conflicts", which are about mutually exclusive statements about matters of fact, and Freudian conflicts where an empirical science tries to explain away religion as a phenomenon in its own right. In the light of this distinction I deal with the reactions of the Church (...) since 1859, particularly with the ambiguous position of the present Pope. (shrink)

Throughout its history, analytic philosophy has established a decidedly anti-rhetoric self-understanding. Yet the historical development of analytic philosophy, leading from Russell to Quine and Davidson, successively puts this anti-rhetorical ideals in question. Even though the rhetorics of clarity and objectivity remain, the discussions of post-analytic philosophy focus more and more an an understanding of language which is forced to acknowledge its irreducible practical and situational aspects. Analytical philosophy, then, should be seen as a decidedly anti-rhetoric tradition which tries to keep (...) up the spirit of scientific enlightenment in times of growing skepticism -- and which is driven, by the very force of clarity and a better understanding, to develop a picture of language which undermines this ideal at least in some aspects. (shrink)

Chinua Achebe, the contemporary Nigerian novelist, is considered as one of the prominent figures in African anti-colonial literature. What makes his works specific is the way he approaches the issues of colonization of Africa in an objective manner and through an innovative language which aims at providing a pathology; a pathological reading meant to draw on the pre-colonial and colonial history without any presumptions so as to present the readers with possible alternative African discourses in future. His first novel Things (...) Fall Apart can be taken as the best representative of such a penchant in Achebe. The present study seeks to approach Things Fall apart by reflecting on those discursive features which have provided the ground for constructing such a pathological reading and an alternative to the colonial discourse. To this end, some key terms introduced by Homi Bhabha and Mikhail Bakhtin such as ‘hybridity’, ‘otherness’ and ‘polyphony’, constitute the cornerstone of this study. Presumably, such an innovative reading of Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is to lead to a better understanding of his discourse and the efforts made by him to help the African readers figure out how to piece together what once fell apart; what they can rely on for building an independent future in the so-called postcolonial era. (shrink)

The task of the congress of the German Society for Semiotics in Passau / Germany in September 2017 was to explore and describe "boundaries". A total of 12 sections of the society wrote a call for paper for this purpose. With the present anthology it has to be made evident, how concretely also the boundaries of the own, the other and the foreign can be negotiated via pictures. -/- -------------- Papers: -/- - Martina Sauer: Ikonische Grenzverläufe. Szenarien des Eigenen, Anderen (...) und Fremden im Bild. Eine Einführung, 4 - Barbara Margarethe Eggert: Das andere Geschlecht im Altarraum – exklusive Textilien als inklusive Medien. Studien zum Gösser Ornat, 7 - Birke Sturm: Politik der Schönheit: Zur Konstruktion einer ›wissenschaftlichen‹ Bildästhetik schöner weiblicher Körper um 1900 am Beispiel des Gynäkologen Carl Heinrich Stratz, 22 - Melis Avkiran: Das rassifizierte Fremde im Bild. Zur Genese differenzbildender Konzepte in der Kunst des 15. Jahrhunderts am Beispiel des Malers Hans Memling, 40 - Leonie Licht: weiß zwischen schwarz zwischen weiß – Geschichten von Identität im Bild, 75 - Julia Austermann: Queere Interventionen im kommunistischen Polen – Krzysztof Jung und sein ›plastisches Theater‹, 91 - Sabine Engel: Tizians Porträt der Laura Dianti. Aneignung und Transformation zwischen Orient und Okzident, 111 - Anna Christina Schütz: Osman Hamdi Beys Türkische Straßenszene. Der Teppich als Verhandlungsort kultureller Identitäten im ausgehenden 19. Jahrhundert, 146 - Benjamin Häger, Claudia Jürgens: Ikonische Stadtstrategien. Das Fassadenplakat und die Musterfassade als Instrumente machtpolitischer Repräsentation, 175 - Irene Schütze: Fehlende Verweise, rudimentäre ›Markierungen‹: aufgeweichte Grenzverläufe zwischen Kunst und Alltag, 204 - Stefan Römer: Interesse an und in einem Bildarchiv für Migrant/innen und Flüchtlinge, 221 - Viola Nordsieck: Von der Fähigkeit, einen Stuhl zu ignorieren. A. N. Whiteheads Konzept der Wahrnehmung als symbolisierender Tätigkeit und die Art, wie wir Bilder als Bilder sehen, 239 - David Jöckel: Mythos und Bild. Roland Barthes’ Semiologie bildlicher Stereotypisierung, 255 -/- - Kurzbiographien der Autorinnen und Autoren, 274 - Impressum, 278. (shrink)

Art is a creative phenomenon which changes constantly, not just insofar as it is being created continually, but also in the very meaning of ‘art.’ Finding a suitable definition of art is no easy task and it has been the subject of much inquiry throughout artistic expression. This paper suggests a crucial distinction between ‘art forms’ and ‘forms of art’ is necessary in order to better understand art. The latter of these corresponds to that which we would typically call art (...) such as painting, singing, etc. The former corresponds to the form out of which these take shape, movement, speech, etc. With this distinction set out, it becomes clearer that art and the aesthetic is rooted in the properties of the ‘thing’ such as the color, shape, and the texture, rather than the product of creation itself. Thus, the future of art will bring a new aesthetic in which these properties become recognized as art and as such there will be an aesthetic of everyday life. (shrink)

This paper investigates the local implementation of Malaysian public GAP standard called MyGAP by examining its effectiveness in raising the awareness and improving the pesticide use practices of participant smallscale farmers toward better food safety and quality assurance. For this objective, 19 MyGAP certified and 57 uncertified durian farms in the state of Pahang, Malaysia were surveyed. The research found that certified farm managers have a much better understanding of the basic intent of the policy than uncertified farms, reflecting the (...) individually oriented interests and motivations of participant farmers in the national scheme. Their interests in and assessment of the merits of the scheme are found to concentrate in economic realms rather than in the original policy goal of food safety and quality assurance. As regards pesticide use practices, certified farms showed a much better performance than uncertified farms in record keeping and pesticide use and management. There remains a question, however, whether it is due to the farming practices improved through MyGAP adoption or due to the participation of farms already well-performing prior to MyGAP adoption. (shrink)

In the spring of 2015, a series of shanshui landscapes by cartoon artist Feng Zikai decorated official China Dream posters in Shanghai, and could since then be encountered in the streets and subway stations of all major cities. While the dissem- ination of national values and active citizen participation in the government’s envi- ronmental modernization program is clearly the major trajectory, this rapprochement towards a formerly prosecuted artist concomitantly illustrates the current reorientation towards local traditions and cultural continuity in China’s (...) state ideology and propa- ganda work. At the same time, the 2014/15 Shanghai arts scene contributed a number of avant-garde landscape art works that pronounced their creators’ concern about the environmental crisis. It will be argued that there is a subliminal dialogue between Xi Jinping’sproject of landscaping the China Dream and the artists’ selective reclamation of shanshui aesthetics in their ecocritical approaches. Whereas the national propa- ganda machine strives to appease opposition against rampant industrial pollution and heritage demolition, the cultural sphere responds by taking the government’s tam- pering with traditional ethico-aesthetic principles at its word. (shrink)

Introduction to vol 5, no. 2 This edition begins with a tribute to Brian Goodwin. Brian was not only an original member of the editorial board of Cosmos & History, but was the patron of the Joseph Needham Centre for Complex Processes Research from within which this journal was conceived. His work and life symbolizes all that the journal stands for. The central question that Brian was concerned with throughout his life was: What is life? It seems appropriate therefore to (...) retrospectively dedicate last year’s two volume special edition on this question to him. However, I believe that this edition of Cosmos & History would also meet with his approval. If there is a theme uniting the papers in this edition it is the problematic state of existing disciplines and the fruitfulness of transcending disciplinary boundaries, something that was of increasing concern to Brian. (shrink)

We are considered to be highly evolved conscious beings, but if we look at ourselves, do we actually feel that we are there; wise men or Homo sapiens as we call ourselves? In today’s world, reward based conditioning forms our contemporary culture that deeply defines how we look at life and how we intuitively perceive our consciousness. Presently, acquisitions are our priority and we behave as narcissistic conditioned puppets and let governments and corporations rule our lives. We are hypocrites that (...) can see, but behave blind; blinded within the realms of our short-termed thrills, joys and beliefs. Augmenting logical questioning and logical conditioning is the only way we can come out of this state that cannot be done individually, it has to be a collective effort. This paper is an attempt to understand our very own evolved consciousness and its relation to the current world with the true meaning of our existence, where we seek to understand it from a logical sense. (shrink)

The paper is devoted to controversies in computer games studies connected with game classification and characteristics. Controversies on walking simulators are discussed in depth; also historical roots of these games and their ergodicity.

The paper discusses the aesthetic aspects of place‑making practices in the urban environment of Western metropoles that are struggling with the progressive undifferentiation of their space and the weakening of communal and personal bonds. The paper starts by describing the general characteristics of an urban environment as distinct from the traditional vision of a city as a well‑structured entity, and in relation to formal and informal aesthetics and participatory design ideas. The author then focuses on two contrary but complementary tactics (...) for translating a space into a positively evaluated p l a ce: by dome ticating it through introducing nature into an urbanscape; and by accentuating its alienness with the example of the urban exploration movement. The growing popularity of the latter is presented in relation to the discourses related to the decline of cities and the romantic endeavours for reaching into the realm of the unknown or the uncanny in order to rediscover and enrich the unique identity of a place. The paper ends with conclusions that present the necessity for the cultivation of a multidimensional aesthetic awareness and an aesthetic engagement as a crucial issue in the complex task of endowing places with a density of meaning. (shrink)

This article reconsiders the split that exists between the discipline of international relations and intellectual history in the light of comparative and connected global history, international relations and the “travel” of ideas in translation studies. By looking more closely at the uneven and combined development approach, it seeks to identify the mechanisms that make the international context a particular field of causality in the analysis of political thought. How are geopolitical interactions between various societies perceived by the social actors who (...) experience them? How does this perception affect their personal identification and the definition of their community and account for the importation, appropriation and redefinition of foreign political ideas as well as the production of new meanings. This framework of analysis is developed by studying the political thought of the Egyptian intellectual Rifâ‘a Al-Tahtâwî (1801-1873). The central argument of the article is that the thought of Tahtâwî represents an attempt to construct a project of an other modernity formulated in terms of the geopolitical context of the time, which was marked by the consequences of the Napoleonic invasion, the decline of the position of Ottoman Egypt in the international hierarchy and the rise to power of Muhammad ‘Ali. -/- Cette analyse revient sur la fracture existant entre la discipline des relations internationales et l’histoire intellectuelle à la lumière, tout d’abord, de l’histoire globale, croisée et connectée ; ensuite, des relations internationales ; enfin, de la traductologie et du « voyage » des idées. L’objectif est d’identifier, par le biais d’un approfondissement de l’approche du développement inégal et combiné, les mécanismes constituant le contexte international comme un champ particulier de causalité dans l’analyse de la pensée politique. Comment les interactions géopolitiques entre différentes sociétés sont-elles perçues par les acteurs sociaux qui en font l’expérience ? Comment cette perception affecte-t-elle leur identification personnelle et la définition de leur communauté, et motive l’importation, l’appropriation et la redéfinition d’idées politiques étrangères ainsi que la production de nouvelles significations. Ce cadre d’analyse est développé via l’étude de la pensée politique de l’intellectuel égyptien Rifâ‘a Al-Tahtâwî (1801- 1873). L’argument central est que la pensée de Tahtâwî représente une tentative de construction d’un projet de modernité autre formulé à travers un engagement dans le contexte géopolitique de l’époque, marqué par les conséquences de l’invasion napoléonienne, le déclin de la position de l’Égypte ottomane dans la hiérarchie internationale et l’accession au pouvoir de Muhammad ‘Ali. (shrink)

Barash's work is both a philosophical work and a history of ideas. The one offers a conceptual account of collective memory, and the other a narrative of changing conceptions and ideological uses of “memory.” In both cases, he argues that careful attention to the border between memory and history is politically significant for criticising appeals to mythical bases of political unity.The main contention of the book is this: collective memory designates a restricted sphere of past references.

Philosophy of art, reflective practice of art and painting, meta-philosophy, meta-philosophical methods.

The recent spectacular progress in assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) has resulted in new ethical dilemmas. Though women occupy a central role in the reproductive process, within the ART paradigm, the importance accorded to the embryo commonly surpasses that given to the mother. This commentary questions the increasing tendency to position the embryonic subject in an antagonistic relation with the mother. I examine how the mother’s reproductive autonomy is compromised in relation to that of her embryo and argue in favour of (...) doing away with the subject-object dyad between them, particularly in the contexts of surrogacy and abortion. I also engage with the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016. A critical discussion of the privacy judgment passed by the Supreme Court of India helps examine how personal autonomy of the body and mind extends to include the reproductive autonomy of women as well. (shrink)

"The Grand Trumpeter" brings a new slant to a well-known story, "The Grand Inquisitor." This new story, much like Dostoevsky's version, is definitely idea-led writing that touches on politics, culture (religion), and philosophy. This effort is best characterized as fiction. It is satirical because it does seek to expose, but it is not satire along the lines of The Onion or magazines like that.

These are all the answers to the exercises in Dr. Robert Zaslavsky’s An Introductory Latin Course: A First Latin Grammar for Middle Schoolers, High Schoolers, College Students, Homeschoolers, and Self-Learners. These answers are formulated to make the grammar that is being taught as transparent as possible to the learner. The goal of these answers is to encourage the learner to think as the Romans did, not to make the Romans think as we do.

Dr. Zaslavsky’s edition of the text of Tacitus’s Agricola has been prepared with an eye to its use as the first complete text with which to challenge learners who have completed a basic course of Latin such as his An Introductory Latin Course: A First Latin Grammar for Middle Schoolers, High Schoolers, College Students, Homeschoolers, and Self-Learners. It is accompanied by historical and grammatical notes, a glossary/concordance, and a translation.

Dr. Zaslavsky’s An Introductory Latin Course presents the characteristics of the Latin language in a holistic way, rather than in the fragmented, way that is typical in other Latin textbooks. This mode of presentation allows students to gain a comprehensive conceptual grasp of the linguistic characteristics that are to be learnedIn addition, since there has been a neglect—even an outright abjuration—of the teaching of English grammar in our schools for at least a third of a century, which has left our (...) students grammar poor, this textbook aims to enrich students grammatically by providing a comprehensive explanation of both English and Latin grammar. This makes it as useful for understanding English as it is for learning Latin. (shrink)

This book is a tool intended to give readers a knowledge of, and feel for, the most basic building blocks of vocabulary, namely the roots that are the basis of so many English words. Knowing these roots enables readers to gain greater reading fluency. Armed with these roots, readers can guess the meanings of unfamiliar words without a feeling of helplessness and without unnecessary dependence upon a dictionary. In this way, reading becomes more fluid, more rewarding, less burdensome, and—most important—less (...) frustrating. (shrink)

The title story of Emine Sevgi Özdamar’s ‘Der Hof im Spiegel’ has received the most critical attention of any piece from the collection, leading to the neglect of the composition of the collection as a whole. Reading it as a short story cycle and examining the connections between the texts reveals that they track developments in migration and integration from before German unification into the 1990s. Through her narrator Özdamar comments on developments in social initiatives to promote integration and mutual (...) understanding, as well as advocating direct individual contact as the basis for intercultural understanding. She also explores possibilities of identification for those with a diasporic background which look beyond social models such as multiculturalism and transcend national borders and citizenship. In particular, Özdamar explores the potential of an adaptive cultural cosmopolitanism for establishing new lattices of identification as the basis for a re-orientated subjectivity in migration. (shrink)