Bu makalede, Erwin Schrödinger’in kuramsal biyolojiye önemli bir katkıda bulunan Yaşam Nedir? adlı kitabındaki fikirlerini ve bu kitabın da etkisiyle gelişen gen-merkezci yaklaşımı eleştirel olarak değerlendirmeyi amaçlıyorum. Schrödinger’in canlılık konusundaki entelektüel mirasının tartışmaya açılması moleküler biyolojinin yaşam bilimlerinde hakim hale gelişinin ve yaşamın organizasyona dayalı temelinin anlaşılması açısından özel bir önem taşıyor. Yayınlandığından beri biyoloji felsefesinde önemli tartışmaları beraberinde getiren Yaşam Nedir? kitabı, yaşamı termodinamiğin yasaları doğrultusunda ele alması açısından biyolojide organizasyonu vurgular. Bununla birlikte Schrödinger’in canlılığın kodu olarak tasavvur ettiği (...) aperiyodik kristal kavramı gen-merkezciliği destekleyen öncül fikirleri barındırmaktadır. Schrödinger, canlı varlıkların doğadaki entropi artışı eğilimiyle baş etmesi gereken nitelikte olması gerektiğini savundu ve bu görüş, canlılığa dair temel bir ilke olarak yaygın kabul gördü. Schrödinger’in yaşamın düzenliliğini mikro düzeyde aperiyodik kristal hipotezi ile açıklama girişimi ise nispeten daha tartışmalıdır. Makalede, bu tartışmalı konuları aydınlatmak amacıyla Schrödinger ve ardından gelişen gen-merkezci yaklaşımlara yönelik eleştirileri ele alıyorum. Ardından, gen-merkezciliğin sınırlılıklarına karşı yaşamın organizasyonunun organizma seviyesinde ele alınması değerlendiriyorum. Bu görüş, Kant’ın self-organizasyon kavramıyla tanımladığı, parça-bütün ilişkilerindeki karşılıklılığı temel alır. Son olarak, yaşamın organizasyonuna dair felsefî yaklaşımları ve entropinin buradaki rolünü tartışıyorum. Organizma düzeyinde ve organizma-çevre ilişkisindeki çoklu etmenlerin geri-besleme ilişkilerine dayanan ağ yapısı, gen-merkezciliğin indirgemeci yaklaşımına karşı kapsayıcı bir alternatif sunmaktadır. (shrink)

Moving education to Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and the many alternatives during the COVID19-pandemic raised the question of pedagogical form. In a sense, pandemic education in its two-dimensionality was a frictionless, sanitized reduction of education to pure form; it offered a more efficient transfer of knowledge and was marked by a heightened means-to-an-end logic. This has made the informal, unforming and deformational activity that Stefano Harney and Fred Moten call study even more difficult, if not impossible during pandemic education. In this (...) article, we consider the pitfalls of thinking in terms of pedagogical form and the formalization of education by engaging with Emile Bojesen’s work on education as (de)formation. Via Harney and Moten, we reflect on what the concept/practice of study by way of formless formation teaches us about (pre-)pandemic education and about pedagogical forms that might be in keeping with study in post-pandemic education. (shrink)

Turkey's historical intimacy with Europe has always spelled ambivalence between inclusion and exclusion. Religious difference was an issue from the start, but this did not stop the Ottomans from recruiting Byzantine princes and Venetian grandees to serve their new state. The sultans in those early centuries claimed the Byzantine mantle and saw their realm as the New Rome, a universal empire in the making. Indeed, European attitudes betrayed an acceptance of these claims as well; it was only after the 16th (...) century, and especially with the Reformation, that the Ottomans emerged as an irrecoverable other. (shrink)

Historically Turkey has been the ‘other’ for Europe. Turkish identity has taken shape via an ambivalent relationship with an idealized Europe. There was resentment due to the perception of exclusion, but also an intense desire to belong. As the project of official association with the European Union progressed, each of the partners had to ask questions about the meaning of culture and identity. At first there was a conviction that the prospect of entry would never turn into reality. The entrenched (...) state elite in Turkey could therefore go through the steps with impunity. However, after the 1990s, new Turkish social groups, independent of the state elite, took the project more seriously, and embarked on serious democratization, as promised in various agreements with the EU. At the same time the Union experienced a similar reversal, with Brussels envisaging Turkey's accession as a real possibility. This new alignment of forces led to an intense debate on the topics of European identity and the frontiers of Europe. If the EU opts for a more constitutional and less cultural representation of the meaning of Europe – thereby implying that its borders could extend even further in the future – then Turkey's accession may well take place. (shrink)

Bu çalışma Uluslararası İlişkiler’de (Uİ) çevrenin neden disiplinin periferisinde yer aldığını “sorun çözücü ve eleştirel” yaklaşımlar ayrımı üzerinden sorgulamaktadır. Disiplindeki sorun çözücü yaklaşımlar, çevreyi sadece bir “sorun” olması durumunda dikkate alan ve mevcut küresel sistem içinde çözümler arayan yaklaşımlardır. Eleştirel yaklaşımlarsa çevre sorunlarının ötesinde daha “iyi” bir dünya yaratmak için sürdürülebilir bir sistem oluşturma amacını taşıyan; bu yüzden sistemin yeniden yapılandırılması gerektiğini ileri sürerek ulusal ve uluslararası politik, ekonomik ve toplumsal düzeni sorgulayan yaklaşımlardır. Bu bağlamda öncelikle “çevresel güvenlik” ve “liberal (...) kurumsalcılık” yaklaşımları incelenmiş, ardından “Ortak Malların Trajedisi” başlığı altında eko-otoriteryenlerin görüşlerine değinilmiştir. Eleştirel yaklaşımlar kısmında “çevre-merkezcilik”, “ekolojik modernleşme” ve “merkezsizleşme” yaklaşımları tartışılmıştır. Sonuç bölümündeyse çevrenin Uİ’de merkezi bir konuma gelememesinin nedenlerine yönelik tespitlere yer verilmiştir. (shrink)

Emotional intelligence is an emerging field since the 1990s due to its important outcomes for employees. This study is a psychometric meta-analysis examining the links between emotional intelligence and organizational commitment, organizational citizenship behavior, job satisfaction, job performance, and job stress of employees. In this meta-analysis, carefully selected studies on emotional intelligence since the origin of the concept in 1990 were included along with studies examining its outcomes. For this analysis, three streams of emotional intelligence, consistent with previous meta-analyses, were (...) considered: ability, self-report, and mixed emotional intelligence. This meta-analysis is an attempt to add to the literature by analyzing the relationships between emotional intelligence and selected employee outcomes over a period of time beginning in 1990. The three streams of emotional intelligence were separately analyzed to examine their relationship with employee outcomes. These outcomes were included in the study based on select research studies. Our study results showed that emotional intelligence and its three streams were positively related to organizational commitment, organizational citizenship behavior, job satisfaction, and job performance and negatively related to job stress. (shrink)

Résumé Historiquement, la Turquie est un « autre » pour l’Europe. Identité européenne et identité turque ont pris forme au travers d’une relation ambivalente (éloignement vs. proximité). Ceci explique pourquoi l’association formelle de la Turquie à l’Union Européenne a pu poser problème – forçant chacun des partenaires à une interrogation sur le sens de la culture et de l’identité. Dans un premier temps a semblé prévaloir une conviction selon laquelle la perspective d’intégration ne deviendrait jamais réalité. Puis, de nouvelles forces (...) sociales turques ont repris à leur compte les engagements vis-à-vis de l’UE dans une perspective de démocratisation du pays. De fait, jusqu’à la fin des années 1990, ce sont des forces sociales nettement distinctes de l’élite d’État qui ont promu l’idée d’intégration à l’UE. Celle-ci a fait parallèlement l’expérience d’un renversement du même ordre : lorsque Bruxelles a finalement projeté d’intégrer effectivement la Turquie, s’est fait jour un intense débat sur les thèmes de l’identité européenne et des frontières de l’Europe. L’UE semble avoir désormais opté pour une représentation plus constitutionnelle et moins culturelle de la signification de l’Europe – impliquant donc que ses frontières pourraient encore plus largement s’étendre à l’avenir. (shrink)

Bu yazı rüyasız uykuyu bilincin çeperinde kalan bir fenomen, Edmund Husserl’in deyimiyle deneyimin bir sınır-durumu (Limesfall) olarak ele almaktadır. Fenomenolojik açıdan, rüyasız uyku bize gündelik hayatımıza şekil veren olağan deneyimlere özgü uyanık bilinçliliğin ardına geçmeyi dayatır. Uyurken bilinç asla ortadan kalkmaz. Dolayısıyla ölümden farksız ve bilinçten tamamen yoksun mutlak bir uyku teorik bir kurgudan ibarettir. Yazının birinci bölümünde felsefe tarihi boyunca rüyasız uyku hakkında görüş ileri süren filozoflar üzerinde durulmaktadır. Immanuel Kant’ın tam aksine John Locke rüyasız bir uykuya imkân tanır. (...) Fakat rüyasız uykuyu bilinçsiz bir zihin hali olarak kabul eden Locke’dan farklı olarak felsefede uyuyan zihne bir duyarlık atfeden René Descartes, G.W. Leibniz ve (başlı başına üçüncü bölümü kendisine ayırdığımız) Husserl gibi filozoflar bilincin uykuda hiçbir zaman tamamen ortadan kalkmayacağı tezini destekler. Ne var ki uykudaki zayıf bilinçliliği göz önünde bulundurmayı önleyen engellerin başında bilinci refleksiyonun bir başarısı olarak görmek gelir. Bilinci refleksiyona eşitleyen her yaklaşım uyurken tamamen bilinçsiz olduğumuz inancını destekleyecektir. Bunun sebebi uykuda refleksiyonun mevcut olmamasıdır. Oysa sadece uyanıkken mümkün olan refleksiyon faaliyeti ortadan kalktığında bile bulanık, edilgin ve cılız bir arka plan bilinci varlığına devam eder. Dahası, uyurken uyanabilmenin yegâne koşulu böylesi bir bulanık bilince zaten sahip olmamızdır. Uyanabilmek için bizi dışarıdan etkileyenin öne çıkıp bir fark yaratacak biçimde bilincinde olmak gerekir. (shrink)

Spinoza genellikle zamanın gerçekdışı olduğunu düşünen bir filozof olarak değerlendirilmektedir. Bu makale Spinoza’nın zamanla ilgili yaklaşımını ele almakta, bu kapsamda öncelikle onun bu konuda geliştirdiği kavramların ve genel olarak zaman anlayışının dikkatli bir şekilde analiz edilmesi gerektiğini vurgulamaktadır. Bunun yanında, Spinoza’nın zamanla ilgili düşüncelerinin tarihsel bağlamına, örneğin sonsuzluk, nedensellik, Tanrı ve Kartezyen felsefe ile ilgili tartışmalara odaklanmaktadır. Son olarak, Spinoza’nın zaman felsefesini Laplaceçı determinizm ve blok evren teorisi gibi modern görüşlerle karşılaştırmalı olarak değerlendirmektedir. Zamanın gerçekdışı olduğu yönündeki argümanlar genellikle gündelik (...) zaman algımızın sorgulanması üzerine inşa edilmektedir. Spinoza, tüm varlıkların ebedî olanla ilişkisi içerisinde kavranması gerektiğini vurgulamıştır. Ona göre ebediyet özünde zamansızdır, ancak zamandaki öncesiz ve sonrasız olma durumunu gerektirir. Spinoza, süreyi varlığın ebedî doğasına benzer bir etkinlik olarak tanımlamıştır. Süre başlı başına zamansal değildir, ancak sürenin niceliksel karşılaştırmalar yoluyla sınırlandırılması sonucunda zaman ortaya çıkar. Spinoza’nın zamanı perspektife bağlıdır; bizle evren arasındaki ilişkiden doğar. Onun zorunluluğa dayanan zamansızlık düşüncesi blok evren teorisini çağrıştırır. Ne var ki Spinoza —blok evren teorisinin altında yatan düşüncelerden biri olan— mekanistik anlayışı nedenselliği dışsal olarak ele almakla eleştirmiş, bunun yerine ebedî olanla fiziksel zorunluluğun ontolojik bütünleşmesini önermiştir. (shrink)

In this thesis, I discuss the organism's self-organization from the perspective of relational ontology. I critically examine scientific and philosophical sources that appeal to the concept of self-organization. By doing this, I aim to carry out a thorough investigation into the underlying reasons of emergent order within the ontogeny of the organism. Moreover, I focus on the relation between universal dynamics of organization and the organization of living systems. I provide a historical review of the development of modern ideas related (...) to self-organization. These ideas have been developed in relation to various research areas including thermodynamics, molecular biology, developmental biology, systems theory, and so on. In order to develop a systematic understanding of the concept, I propose a conceptual distinction between transitional self-organization and regulative self-organization. The former refers to the spontaneous emergence of order, whereas the latter refers to the self-maintaining characteristic of the living systems. I show the relation between these two types of organization within biological processes. I offer a critical analysis of various theories within the organizational approach. Several ideas and notions in these theories originate from the early studies in cybernetics. More recently, autopoiesis and the theory of biological autonomy asserted certain claims that were critical toward the ideas related to self-organization. I advocate a general theory of self-organization against these criticisms. I also examine the hierarchical nature of the organism's organization, as this is essential to understand regulative self-organization. I consider the reciprocal relation between bottom-up and top-down dynamics of organization as the basis of the organism's individuation. To prove this idea, I appeal to biological research on molecular self-assembly, pattern formation (including reaction-diffusion systems), and the self-organized characteristic of the immune system. Finally, I promote the idea of diachronic emergence by drawing support from biological self-organization. I discuss the ideas related to constraints, potentiality, and dynamic form in an attempt to reveal the emergent nature of the organism. To demonstrate the dynamicity of form, I examine research into biological oscillators. I draw the following conclusions: synchronic condition of the organism is irreducibly processual and relational, and this is the basis of the organism's potentiality for various organizational states. (shrink)

The claims that learning systems must build causal models and provide explanations of their inferences are not new, and advocate a cognitive functionalism for artificial intelligence. This view conflates the relationships between implicit and explicit knowledge representation. We present recent evidence that neural networks do engage in model building, which is implicit, and cannot be dissociated from the learning process.

Die Rechtstheorie von Thomas von Aquin ist vermutlich die einflussreichste Darstellung der Naturrechtstheorie in der Rechtsphilosophie. Die zeitgenössische Literatur zur Naturrechtslehre zeigt jedoch, dass es nicht nur eine Art von Naturrechtstheorie gibt. Philosophen wie Mark C. Murphy haben hilfreiche Unterscheidungen zwischen verschiedenen Versionen der Naturrechtstheorie getroffen, indem sie versuchten, eine gemeinsame naturrechtliche Position zu identifizieren. Ziel dieses Artikels ist es, die folgende Frage zu beantworten: Welche Version der Naturrechtstheorie repräsentiert die Rechtstheorie des Thomas von Aquin am besten, da es verschiedene (...) Arten von Naturrechtstheorien gibt? Zunächst analysiere ich kritisch einige herausragende Versionen der Naturrechtstheorie. Diese Analyse bietet einen theoretischen Rahmen, um zu bestimmen, welche Art von Naturrechtstheorie Thomas von Aquin vertritt. Ich argumentiere, dass Thomas von Aquins Darstellung der Tyrannei in De Regimine Principum zeigt, dass er eine hybride Version der Naturrechtstheorie vertritt. Nach seiner Naturrechtstheorie gibt es eine moralische Mindestanforderung, die Regeln erfüllen müssen, um rechtsgültig zu sein; sobald dieses Minimum erreicht ist, ist jede Steigerung ihrer Moral auch eine Steigerung ihrer Legalität. Ich behaupte auch, dass die Naturrechtstheorie des Thomas von Aquin trotz ihrer Subtilität eine Schwäche aufweist, nämlich dass sie schwer mit dem gewöhnlichen Rechtsleben vereinbar ist. Die Ansicht, dass ein Gesetz „mehr oder weniger“ Gesetz sein könnte, und die Überzeugung, dass es für die Rechtsgültigkeit notwendige moralische Anforderungen gibt, sind nicht ausreichend durch die tatsächliche Rechtserfahrung begründet. (shrink)

In this paper, I discuss the neo-Aristotelian approaches, which usually reinterpret Aristotle’s ideas on form and/or borrow the notion of formal cause without engaging with the broader implications of Aristotle’s metaphysics. In opposition to these approaches, I claim that biosemiotics can propose an alternative view on life’s form. Specifically, I examine the proposals to replace the formal cause with gene-centrism, functionalism, and structuralism. After critically addressing these approaches, I discuss the problems of reconciling Aristotelianism with the modern view of life’s (...) organization. I claim that the notion of the final cause proposes a cosmological hierarchy and that this is the main problem with applying the formal cause to biology. An alternative categorization of conceptualizing life’s form involves the processual identity, relational property clusters, and context-dependent transmission of representational units. The third category points to a semiotic basis of the form of life. In this context, I offer to readjust the focus of the problem of matter-form duality by pointing out that form is primarily an issue of the subject-object relation. Biosemiotics helps to understand the constructive role of symbolic representation in living systems, which is crucial to extend the analysis of the form from cognitive representations to external phenomena. Emergence of subjectivity and perspectivity of interactions are key elements to bridge the form and actual processes within a non-hylomorphic account. To demonstrate transitions from the physical influence of shapes to the organic recognition of forms, I address the biological studies on the synchronization of coincidental inputs and enzyme specificity. (shrink)

I examine how Heather Douglas’ account of values in science applies to the assessment of actual cases of scientific practice. I focus on the case of applied toxicologists’ acceptance of molecular evidence-gathering methods and evidential sources. I demonstrate that a set of social and institutional processes plays a philosophically significant role in changing toxicologists’ inductive risk judgments about different kinds of evidence. I suggest that Douglas’ inductive risk framework can be integrated with a suitable account of evidence, such as Helen (...) Longino’s contextual empiricism, to address the role of social context in the cases like the one examined here. I introduce such an integrated account and show how Longino’s contextual empiricism and inductive risk framework fruitfully complement each other in analyzing the novel aspects of the toxicology case. (shrink)

The first eulogies (Qaṣāīd) about the Prophet Muḥammad (pbuh) appeared when he was still alive. Ḥassān ibn Thābit (d. 60/680 [?]), ʿAbd Allāh b. Rawāḥa (d. 8/629) and Kaʿb b. Mālik (d. 50/670), important Muslim poets of the period, praised the Prophet and inspired future generations of poets. Depending on the developments in the following centuries, there had been a great increase in the number of poems sung to express enthusiastic feelings towards the Prophet and to defend him and his (...) Prophethood. Andalusia is one of the places where this genre increased the most. The first examples of the praise of the Prophet appeared in Andalusia during the Mulūk al-Ṭawāʾif period (1031-1090). The praises of the Prophet, which were processed in the poems of asceticism, dirge and elegy until the end of the 5th/11th century, became an independent genre called al-Madāʾiḥ al-Nabawiyyah/Nabawiyyāt thanks to the ever-increasing Ṣūfī thoughts penetrating literary circles. The turning point of the praise of the Prophet in Andalusia, as in the East, is the period of the The Almohads (1147-1238), which coincides with the 7th/13th century. The mawlid celebrations, which were first initiated by the Fāṭimids in the 4th/10th century to give legitimacy to their rule, and held every year in North Africa on the twelfth of the month of Rabi'ulawwal, moved to Andalusia at the end of the The Almohad period and gradually became one of the largest official and religious holidays in Andalusia. Giving awards to high-quality poems read on the mawlid festival and celebrations made all over Andalusia has greatly contributed to the literary richness in this field. In praise of the Prophet, talented poets such as Abū Zayd al-Fāzāzī (d. 627/ 1230), Ibn al-Jannān al-Anṣārī (d. 650/1252), Ibn Jābir (d. 780/1378) and Ibn Zumruk (d. 797/1395) emerged. Abū Zayd al-Fāzāzī, one of the most distinguished Prophetic ode poets of the Almohad period is said to have first pioneered the spread of Prophetic praises in Andalusia before the Iraqi poet Yaḥyā al-Ṣarṣarī (d. 656/1258) and the Egyptian poet Būṣīrī (d. 695/1296). He has a dīvān called al-Wasā’il al-mutaqabbalah, which he wrote in alphabetical order and dedicated to the praise of the Prophet. The fame of the odes he uttered about the Prophet spread as far as North Africa, and it has become a tradition to read his odes on special days. Because of the abundance and quality of Prophetic odes, Ibn al-Jannān, who witnessed the glorious days and the collapse of the The Almohad state, also commemorated the poet Ḥassān ibn Thābit, The Prophet’s Odic Poet. Ibn Jābir al-Andalusī, on the other hand, wrote the second ode in this field after Ṣafī al-Dīn al-Ḥilli (d. 749/1348), the inventor of the axiomatic odes, and became the pioneer of axiomatic odes in Andalusia. The effect of political instability on Prophetic odes in Andalusia, which entered its collapse with the end of the Almohad state, is obvious. According to many poets, salvation from this plight of Muslims in Andalusia is possible by once again adhering to the Sunnah of the Prophet. Probably as a reflection of this idea, many poets from 7th/13th centuries onwards devoted their odes to narrating the Prophet and his Sunnah. Poets who describe the Prophet elaborately in their poems hope to be saved from the troubles they have fallen into and to reach the highest rank in heaven. Poets who touched upon the physical characteristics of the Prophet often likened his smiling face to a bright sun and a full moon. In terms of oratory, they stated that he had a fluent language and never uttered bad words. Andalusian poets, who praised the Prophet with moral virtues such as tolerance, justice and courage, stated that there was nobody more merciful and generous than him due to the abundance of his blessings resembling torrential rain. Andalusian Prophetic ode poets adhered to the traditional forms of Arabic poetry in terms of the structure of eulogy. In the introductory parts of odes, they generally express longing for the Prophet and the holy places. The main theme is mostly the Prophet and his outstanding virtues, and they usually end their eulogies with salutation to the Prophet. Save a few Sufi poets, it can be said that they used simple and understandable language in their poems. The sources of inspiration for their poems are the Qur'an and hadiths. Andalusian poets used non-material axiomatic arts in their poems without disturbing the structure of eulogy. In addition to the art of pun, they provided musicality in the poem with the ‘tent-frame’ meter and rhyme scheme, sometimes supporting it through repetition. It is possible to see all kinds of repetitions in, Ibn al-Jannān's odes. In this study, the place of the Prophet in Andalusia and odes, which are reflections of the love for him, will be examined. In addition, the concept of the Prophet in Andalusia will be explained within the political, social and cultural framework of the period. (shrink)

There are some radical practices of asceticism, such as wearing ṣūf (wool clothes), traveling without provisions, choosing to be single, and avoiding earning a living by working, which were generally seen in the 2nd century A.H. and were subject to criticism with the formation of classical Ṣūfism. Criticisms of these practices have started to appear in the literature since the 3rd century A.H. Early Ṣūfī writers such as Al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī, Muḥāsibī, Abū Saʿīd al-Kharrāz, al-Sarrāj focused on this issue and criticized (...) these practices. How are these practices of ascetics viewed in the sects that were formed and spread in the 6th and 7th centuries? Our research seeks the answer to this question, but limits it to the example of Abū l-Ḥasan al-Shādhilī, the founder of Shādhiliyya. This question is important in two respects: First of all, it is investigated whether the determination of some researchers that al-Shādhilī taught comfort in the face of worldly blessings is also correct. Because, among contemporary researchers, there are those who believe that al-Shādhilī wears ostentatious clothes, rides horses, encourages economic competitiveness, and is therefore open to benefiting from worldly blessings to the fullest. Secondly, it includes an investigation of the validity of the belief that these practices belong to an early period in the history of Sûfism and have been completely abandoned over time. Although al-Shādhilī seems to have completed his spiritual education in Morocco with his sheikh, he later went to Tunisia with the latent command of his master. We see that in his first years in Tunisia, he went into seclusion in a cave and was completely isolated from the society and engaged in worship in a way that reminds us of the practices of the early ascetics. But in the second phase of his life in Tunisia, he went to the city on a spiritual sign, socialized, started to give sermons to people, and started to behave more flexible about eating and drinking. al-Shādhilī specifically states that he did not prefer socialization at this stage, but with a spiritual sign. Later, he went to Egypt again with a spiritual sign and got married there, started to deal with agriculture, and continued to socialize by establishing relations with the rulers. Therefore, it can be said that this new social period is a break both from the radical practices of the early ascetics and from the early period in Tunisia itself. It is also seen that in this new period of al-Shādhilī, he did not wear the clothes of ascetics like sūf (wool clothes) and did not want his followers to wear them. He also encouraged to have a profession and was generally against traveling without provisions. But there are two points to be noted here: First, these milder and more comfortable practices should not lead to a search for comfort and luxury. He continued to keep his distance from worldly blessings and to advise asceticism. Secondly, he had some of his distinguished disciples make some practices of the ascetics. The reason for the existence of these seemingly contradictory practices is that while he recommends moderate and sustainable practices to the general public and his followers, he can make the specialized sūfis more strict and difficult practices. While he was encouraging work and earning in general, not ignoring experience, including avoiding work; not ignoring seclusion while leading to sociality in general; while generally suggesting to resort to occasions, he also follows a path of implementing and enforcing radical practices such as traveling without food. Thus, al-Shādhilī is able to encompass all the seemingly incompatible practices of the previous sūfi accumulation with a point of view of spiritual rank and hierarchy. (shrink)

Temelini Harvard Üniversitesi’nde savunulan bir doktora tezinin oluşturduğu bu çalışma, Bizans hakkındaki Arap-İslam görüşünün yüzyıllar boyunca süren savaş, temas ve karşılıklı alışveriş ile geçirdiği evrim sürecinin bölgesel-tarihsel gelişmeler bağlamında izini sürmektedir. Kitap Giriş, Bizans’la karşılaşma, Bizans’ın karşısında durmak, İslam savunmada ve Yeni bir gerçeklik: Bizans’ı yeniden ziyaret başlıkları altında dört ana bölüm ve Sonuç kısmından oluşmaktadır. Başlıklardan da anlaşılacağı üzere, dört ana bölümün her biri nitelikleri belirgin dönemleri ele almaktadır. Bu yazıda da kitabın mevcut sistematiğine uyularak her bir kısım ayrı (...) ayrı ele alınmış, yazarın temel iddiaları özetlenmiş, seçme örnekler verilmiş ve tüm bunlar değerlendirilmiştir. (shrink)

The method of doubt has been used in philosophy and theology by both philosophers and theologians, among them al-Ghazālī. Al-Ghazālī’s method conveys the process of how he was cured of his epistemological and existential crisis. This study analyzes each phase of the process in terms of epistemology and logic; it explains the problems and how they appeared to al-Ghazālī.

The method of doubt has been used in philosophy and theology by both philosophers and theologians, among them al-Ghazālī. Al-Ghazālī’s method conveys the process of how he was cured of his epistemological and existential crisis. This study analyzes each phase of the process in terms of epistemology and logic; it explains the problems and how they appeared to al-Ghazālī.

We argue for a reconsideration of the claim that Spinoza’s perfectionist conception of education was ushering in a form of radical humanism distinctly favorable to democratic ideals. With the rise of democratic societies and the corresponding need to constitute educational institutions within those societies, a more thoroughgoing commitment to democratic social ideals arose, first and foremost in American educational thought. This commitment can be seen especially in Dewey’s philosophy of education. Specifically, Dewey and Spinoza had strikingly distinct conceptions of the (...) overall aims of schooling. While Spinoza takes the aim of education to be the perfection of a student’s original nature, Dewey takes education to involve the collective acquisition of an additional nature, reflecting the norms and expectations of one’s specific community. In this paper, we juxtapose these two distinct conceptions of education alongside one another, with an eye towards illuminating the limitations of a perfectionist theory of education for the individual, as we find it in Spinoza, within a democratic society. (shrink)

Intense debates about who will lead the Muslims after the death of the Prophet Muḥammad (PBUH) occurred among the Aṣḥāb (companions of the Prophet Muhammad). A group of Aṣḥāb claimed that the caliphate was the right of Ḥaḍrat ʿAlī and his descendants. This movement, which emerged as political advocacy supporting Ḥaḍrat ʿAlī (d. 40/661) and his children, took on a sectarian identity called Shīʿa by time, was divided into groups, and then spread to different places in the Islamic World. One (...) of these groups is the Ismāʿīliyya which took its name from Ismāʿīl b. Ḏj̲aʿfar al-Ṣādiḳ (d. 138/755). Ismāʿīliyya had believed that the Umayyads and the ʿAbbāsids usurped the right of Ḥaḍrat ʿAlī and his descendants; therefore, they struggled against these dynasties secretly under the leadership of ʿUbayd Allāh al-Mahdī (d. 322/934) and by means of callers. After establishing their first state Fāṭimids in the North Africa with the Berbers, the Ismāʿīlīs carried out their activities openly and seized a region from Barqa to the Atlantic Ocean. The Fāṭimid State based on sectarianism aimed to follow the Shīʿa belief rather than controlling an area since its establishment. In this respect, the Fāṭimids, who differed from the ʿAbbāsid and Umayyad states, made great efforts to capture Egypt and Andalus by increasing their propagandas through callers (dāī) from the end of the third century. Because of this effort and successful policy of al-Muʿizz li-Din Allah the third, they conquered Egypt. The callers played a key role in the Egypt. As the Sunni-Maliki sect had taken root in Andalusia, Ismāʿīlīs could not achieve the same success, and a limited number of people embraced their doctrine. However, they managed to direct some famous intellectual and literary men to their side. Undoubtedly, one of the most important achievements was Ibn Hāniʾ al-Andalusi (d. 362/973). Ibn Hāniʾ, who had to leave Andalusia, as he was a Shiite, went to Maghrib and came under the patronage of the governors of Masila, which depended on Fāṭimid. His poems about governors spread his fame and made him known until al-Qayrawan, the capital of Fāṭimid. One of the methods used by many of the caliphs and amīrs (ruler) to consolidate their rule within the borders of the state and to spread their influence abroad since the Jahiliyya (pre-Islamic period) is that they included poets who praised themselves and the state policies, in other words, made their advertisements in the palace. Ibn Hāniʾ was one of the poets Caliph Muʿizz invited to his palace in al-Mansuriyya as soon as he heard of the poet’s fame. Ibn Hāniʾ came to the presence of Caliph in 350/962 and named as al-Mutanabbī of Maghreb as he became famous than poets such as Abu'l-Qasim al-Fazari and ʿAlī b. Muḥammad al-Iyadi. In time, Ibn Hāniʾ who became one of the sincerest friends of Muʿizz, used all his creative potential to defend the Caliph and deliver the views of Ismāʿīliyya in return for the value and generosity he received from the Caliph. Thus, the poet, who became the most powerful defender and propagandist of the Fāṭimids who pursued an expansionist policy in the East and the West, introduced an innovation to his style of praise contrary to his classical style. Accordingly, he gained great reputation thanks to his poems that praised the Fāṭimid Imāms, especially Muʿizz using expressions attributing him superhuman properties. Naturally, the successful politics followed by Muizz and the doctrine and terms of the Shiite-Ismāʿīliyya party, which the poet advocated, had a distinct reflection on his odes. Moreover, the issue of Ahl al-Bayt (the family of the Prophet Muḥammad) and injustices they suffered, affected the poet’s feelings deeply, and he did not hesitated to express these injustices in his poems without worrying about any danger. These odes reported to be the first written documents including information about the Fāṭimid creed and the traits, which Fāṭimid Imāms were supposed to have, are important resources for researchers. Fāṭimids believed that the imām was innocent, knew everything, and he would intercede his friends on Judgment Day. They even saw him as superhuman and attributed holiness and glory to him that would make him the spirit of God. Furthermore, they regarded that the imām was the reason of life. Similar themes were very common in Ibn Hāniʾ’s poetry. His poems went beyond the borders of the states in the North Africa, spread to a large region extending from Andalusia to Baghdad, and provided recognition of the doctrine of Ismāʿīliyya. This study consists of an introduction and two parts. The introduction part includes brief information about the history of the Shīʿa-Ismāʿīliyya and Ibn Hāniʾ’s life and poetry. The other parts discuss reflections of the Shīʿa-Ismāʿīliyya belief in the poet’s odes and analyses of these poems. Finally, poems having historical and political value related to Karbala, which has profound effects on Shiite literature, are analyzed. (shrink)

The problem of personal problem in philosophy is mostly handled as an identity or a “self” problem. When handled with the identity problem, personal identity means the identification of a person in a certain time point with a person at another time point. When handled together with the “self” problem; however, personal identity is considered a part of a substantive and metaphysical investigation. Hume’s philosophy includes both aspects of the discussions of personal identity in an opposing manner. In the present (...) study, Hume’s thoughts on the problem of personal identity will be examined. Firstly, the meaning of the idea of the self in his epistemology based on perception will be dealt with. Then, identity will be searched. It will be claimed that the thing that formed the theses of Hume about self and identity is his skepticism; and that Hume reinforces his thoughts on metaphysics with this investigation. In addition, it will be defended that in order to better understand the personal identity, it is necessary to consider his views on the nature of belief. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Amartya Sen’s capability approach is often used in disability research as a normative framework for describing and evaluating the well-being of people with disabilities. Nevertheless, recently, the possibility of going beyond description to the use of the capability approach as an explanatory tool has been raised. However, to allow the use of the capability approach in this way requires grounding it in an appropriate research paradigm. In this paper, critical realism is adopted for this purpose. It is argued that (...) critical realism can provide the ontology needed to justify finding explanations for the way that people with disabilities achieve their valued capabilities. The assumption here is that there are real, emergent structures and mechanisms that underlie empirical capabilities; and that these structures and mechanisms are related to people’s agency, as described by critical realism’s conception of the relationship between structure and agency. (shrink)

The fearful ape hypothesis proposes that heightened fearfulness in humans is adaptive. However, despite its attractive anthropocentric narrative, the evidence presented for greater fearfulness in humans versus other apes is not sufficient to support this claim. Conceptualization, context, and comparison are strongly lacking in Grossmann's proposal, but are key to understanding variation in the fear response among individuals and species.

Öz: Frege özel adların (ve diğer dilsel simgelerin) anlamları ve gönderimleri arasında ünlü ayrımını yaptığı “Anlam ve Gönderim Üzerine” (1948) adlı makalesinde, bu ayrımın önemi, gerekliliği ve sonuçları üzerine uzun değerlendirmeler yapar ancak özel adın anlamından tam olarak ne anlaşılması gerektiğinden yalnızca bir dipnotta kısaca söz eder. Örneğin “Aristoteles” özel adının anlamının Platon’un öğrencisi ve Büyük İskender’in öğretmeni ya da Stagira’da doğan Büyük İskender’in öğretmeni olarak alınabileceğini söyler. Burada dikkat çeken nokta örnekteki özel adın olası anlamları olarak gösterilen belirli betimlemelerin (...) de özel ad içeriyor olması. Anlamın Frege için bileşimsel olduğu, bir başka deyişle bir dilsel simgenin anlamının (varsa) parçalarının anlamlarınca belirlendiği düşünülürse, örnekteki belirli betimlemelerin anlamlarının saptanabilmesi için içerdikleri özel adların da anlamları saptanıp betimleme içinde geçtikleri yere konmalıdır. Bu işlem hiçbir özel ad kalmayana kadar sürdürülmelidir. Ancak biraz düşünülünce bir özel adın nesnesini tekil olarak betimleyecek ve içinde özel ad geçmeyecek bir betimleme bulmanın kolay olmadığı görülür. Örneğin yukarıdaki betimlemelerde geçen “Platon”, “Büyük İskender” ve “Stagira” gibi özel adların anlamları olabilecek ancak özel ad içermeyen betimlemeler bulmak pek kolay görünmüyor. Ortaya bir sonsuz gerileme sorunu çıkmış gibi duruyor. Frege’nin anlam-gönderim ayrımını için ciddi sonuçları olabilecek bu sorunu Frege çözebilir mi? Bu yazıda bu sorunun yanıtını arayacağım. Sorunu betimledikten sonra Frege’nin önündeki seçenekleri (örneğin bağlama duyarlı terimlerden (gösterme adılları veya belirteçler) yararlanma veya bağlamı sınırlama gibi) değerlendireceğim. -/- Abstract: In his “Sense and Reference” (1948), Frege makes his famous distinction between the sense and the reference of a proper name (and other signs) and discusses at length the significance, necessity and consequences of the distinction, but he explains how the sense of a proper name should be understood very briefly in a footnote. According to him, for example, the sense of the proper name “Aristotle” can be taken as the pupil of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great or the teacher of Alexander the Great who was born in Stagira. What is interesting here is that the definite descriptions given as the possible senses of this proper name do themselves contain proper names too. Since the sense is something compositional for Frege, which means the sense of a linguistic sign is determined by its constituents (if there are any), in order to determine the sense of definite descriptions in question, we should first determine the senses of proper names they contain and substitute these senses with the proper names themselves. This process should continue until no proper name remains. However, it does not seem easy to find a definite description which describes the object of a proper name uniquely but contains no proper name itself. For instance, could we find appropriate senses that contain no proper name for “Plato”, “Alexander the Great” and “Stagira”? It does not seem likely. A problem of infinite regress appears to arise. Can Frege solve this problem, which poses a serious threat for his sensereference distinction? I will explore this problem in this paper. After explaining the problem, I will discuss the options (e.g. turning to indexicals or context restriction) Frege can take to deal with it. (shrink)