In this study, we aimed to investigate how prospective science teachers, who participated in a series of explicit-reflective activities for NOS teaching, understood "science in a social and cultural context" in the context of a biographical documentary film. We adopted a phenomenological approach. The data were analyzed descriptively by considering the aspects of nature of science and the levels of understanding as defined in Dilthey's hermeneutic approach. In this way, we determined participants’ levels of hermeneutic understanding regarding the nature of (...) science. The findings show that the participants regarded science within the framework of aspects of the consensus view blended with somewhat authentic interpretations and at a basic level of understanding from the point of view of hermeneutics. This finding highlights the importance of integrating the hermeneutic approach into the teaching process in understanding science. (shrink)

It has been argued recently that one major difficulty facing the A-theory of time consists in the view’s failure to provide a satisfactory account of the passage of time. Critics have objected that this particular charge is premised on an unduly strong conception of temporal passage, and that the argument does not go through on alternative, less demanding conceptions of passage. The resulting dialectical stalemate threatens to prove intractable, given the notorious elusiveness of the notion of temporal passage. Here I (...) argue that there is progress to be made in this regard. The argument from passage takes issue with a certain feature of the standard versions of the A-theory that is in fact problematic independently of worries about temporal passage. To illustrate this, I present a new argument, the argument from comprehensiveness, which demonstrates that the standard A-theoretic account of temporal reality is inadequate, even if it is granted that it can accommodate passage. (shrink)

Every word of the Qur'an ensures the understanding of the divine will. The foundation signs in it were created for this purpose. Just like the punctuation marks that ensure the correct understanding of a Turkish sentence, the foundation marks in the Qur'an have assumed the same function. The signs of foundation, which give the opportunity to breathe by interrupting the recitation at the places where the mana is completed, and the signs of ibtida, which provides the recitation starting from the (...) appropriate place for the integrity of the meaning, have a significant importance in the authentic interpretation of the Qur'an. The scholar, who wrote very important works related to the field and brought an independent topic under the name of "Secâvend" to the science of recitation, undoubtedly Muhammad b. Tayfur es-Secavendi. According to him, it is considered obligatory to dwell on the foundation denoted by the remzi (م) in the mushafs. Because when vasl is performed in these places, the nature and meaning of the verse changes. Based on these reasons, a foundation is different from other types of foundations. In this study, the signs of the need for foundation were examined within the framework of the verse integrity, and it was analyzed why Secavendi considered it necessary to make a foundation, taking into account the possible meanings that may occur in the case of vasl. (shrink)

The necessity of having effective and socially sound networks is trivial. It is clear that information technology is now a necessary tool that has well understood advantages. The same technology carries negative side-effects. It is our social and ethical duty to examine the possibly negative side effects of IT, especially as IT becomes prevalent in a conservative society such as Kuwait. In our research Kuwait forms a case study as we try to understand what ethical theories underlie the attitude toward (...) one problematic aspect of IT, online pornography, in Muslim/Arab societies. In this paper we review several ethical theories and then present the results of experimental research aimed at determining the concepts that underlie the Kuwaiti response to pornography online. (shrink)

It is usually agreed that reality is temporal in the sense of containing entities that exist in time, but some philosophers, roughly those who have been traditionally called A-theorists, hold that reality is temporal in a far more profound sense than what is implied by the mere existence of such entities. This hypothesis of deep temporality typically involves two ideas: that reality is temporally compartmentalised into distinct present, past, and future ‘realms’, and that this compartmentalisation is temporally dynamic in the (...) sense that the boundaries of those temporal realms change from one moment to the next. The truth of something like this hypothesis is commonly thought to require that at least some of the facts that fundamentally constitute reality be tensed. While this seems plausible, realism about fundamental tensed facts does not seem to entail deep temporality. Nor is it clear exactly what realism about tense amounts to, given that no informative answer has been given to the question of what it is for a fact to be tensed. In this paper, I introduce a novel approach, perspectivalism about temporal reality, that seeks to vindicate the hypothesis of deep temporality by ascribing to reality a certain kind of temporally perspectival structure, which also provides a straightforward answer to the question of what the tensedness of facts consists in as well as to the question of what it is for reality to be constituted by such facts. (shrink)

Realists about tense, or A-theorists of time, believe that some of the facts that fundamentally constitute reality are tensed, and most of them seem to think that those tensed facts are to be understood as fixing the way things are, absolutely speaking, or simpliciter. But there is a simple yet powerful argument, the argument from atemporality, to the effect that realists should reject the absolutist conception of reality’s constitution by facts because, despite appearances to the contrary, that conception is in (...) fact inconsistent with realism about tense. After presenting the argument, I investigate why the relevant inconsistency has not been recognised so far and point to one possible explanation. (shrink)

This article seeks to determine whether PT Freeport Indonesia, an operating subsidiary of Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc., has acted in environmentally and socially responsible ways in the context of its operations in Papua, Indonesia, and how well it has responded to the legacy left by its less responsible operations from 1973 until the mid-1990s. This objective is achieved by examining the company's impact on the resources and assets with which it comes into contact as part of its operations, as (...) well as through a historical review of the province of Papua and its incorporation into Indonesia, Freeport's entry into Papua, and the company's engagement with international and Indonesian politics. (shrink)

According to a recent wave of work by legal anti-positivists, legal norms are a subset of moral norms. This striking “one-system” view of law has rapidly become the dominant form of anti-positivism, but its implications have so far been little tested. This article argues that the one-system view leads systematically to untenable conclusions about what legal rights and obligations we have. For many clear legal norms, the view lacks the resources to explain the existence of corresponding moral norms. And its (...) criteria for distinguishing legal norms within morality imply an under- or over-inclusive set of legal norms. I stress the special difficulties that apply beyond obligations, in the case of privileges and powers, and I show that the view's problems do not only—or mainly—concern egregiously unjust law, or indeed morally defective law at all. I close with reflections on legal normativity and the prospects for different forms of anti-positivism. (shrink)

The _Epic of Gilgamesh_, a 3600-year 12-tablet collection, was looted from an Iraqi museum during the 1991 Gulf War, and fraudulently imported into the United States. In September, 2021, UNESCO facilitated its repatriation to Iraq, which is seen as an occasion to consolidate Iraq’s efforts to rebuild its legacy, since the _Epic of Gilgamesh_ is of immense cultural, historical and religious value for Iraq The current study examines the _Epic of Gilgamesh_ in the light of the ancient Sumerian and Akkadian (...) traditions. This collection of tablets carries a great legacy of the contemporary Babylonian and Mesopotamian beliefs and socio-religious values, also evident in the use of cuneiform and clay tablets, being ancient forms of writings. The study made use of content analysis and historical and analytical approaches to retrieve data through a documentation research design. The study found that the _Epic of Gilgamesh_ is not only a work of religious literature, but a treatise on civilization. On one hand it narrates the stories engrained in the Mesopotamian mythology, such as those of Ninsun, Shamash and Utnapishtim; on the other hand, owing to its content, literary style and tone, characterization and symbolism, this study would be a great contribution to relive the story of Gilgamesh from current literary, and socio-religious perspective and provide a comprehensive account of the legacy and inheritance that it brings in for the modern generation. (shrink)

One of the critical crises observed in human society, especially in the so-called advanced and industrial societies, is the spiritual crisis. Spirituality in various types of cultural and religious concepts is considered a spiritual path one in which can achieve something like a high level of consciousness, wisdom or union with God. In addition, self-esteem is a sense of worth. This feeling comes from the sum of our thoughts, feelings, emotions and experiences throughout life. Dignity also means honour and pride, (...) which has been mentioned many times in the Qur'an. In contrast to dignity, there is humiliation, which means lack of dignity in which one simply accepts defeat. Religious teachings, especially Islamic teachings, do not summarise dignity as wealth, luxury and the enjoyment of material possibilities, but interprets dignity as spirituality, and liberation from the shackles of worldliness, which give Muslims a moral identity. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the mediating role of moral identity between spiritual intelligence and self-esteem of Muslims. The statistical population includes 834 Muslim employees working in 20 branches of one Iranian university. Necessary data were collected by standard questionnaires. Pearson's correlation coefficient and regression analysis in SPSS software (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) were used to analyse the data. According to the results of the analysis, there is a positive relationship between spiritual intelligence and self-esteem of Muslims. There is also a positive relationship between moral identity and self-esteem. Furthermore, moral identity plays a mediating role in the relationship between spiritual intelligence and self-esteem, and it strengthens this relationship. CONTRIBUTION: The present study proves the mediating role of ethical identity on the relationship between spiritual intelligence and self-esteem in an Islamic society. (shrink)

İslam’da Ahlak ve Ahlak Ekolleri adlı bu eser önsöz ve iki bölümden müteşekkildir. Yazar bu eserinde insanın temel niteliği olarak ele aldığı ahlakın İslam dinindeki yeri ve önemini, süreç içerisinde oluşan ekolleri, bireysel ve toplumsal açıdan konumunu ve değerini ortaya koymaya çalışmaktadır. Hassaten İslam düşünce tarihindeki sufilerin ahlak görüşleri iktibas edilerek hazırlanan bu eser, bu alanda çalışmalar yapacak kimseler için ele aldığı konular açısından okunmaya değer bir yapıt olarak karşımıza çıkmaktadır.

Let equation image denote the inverse limit of all finite cyclic groups. Let F, G and H be abelian groups with H ≤ G. Let FβH denote the abelian group , where +βis defined by +β = + β — β) for a certain β : F → G linear mod H meaning that β = 0 and β + β — β ∈ H for all a, b in F. In this paper we show that the following hold: The (...) additive group of any nonstandard model ℤ* of the ring ℤ is isomorphic to βH for a certain β : ℤ*+/H → equation image linear mod H. equation image is isomorphic to βH for some β : equation image/H →ℚ linear mod H, though equation image is not the additive group of any model of Th and the exact sequence H → equation image → equation image/H is not splitting. (shrink)

This article examines popular cinema’s interactions with digital culture, focusing on cinema and social structure. A product of technological and social developments, digital culture has introduced the creation of cyberspace, the emergence and spread of social media, and the formation of virtual communities. This article focuses on a specific period (1980 – 2010) to examine the evolution in cinema of portrayals of digital culture. The analysis includes four influential films: WarGames (1983, by John Badham), Perfect Blue (1997, by Satoshi Kon), (...) Pulse (2001, by Kiroshi Kurosawa), and Life in a Day (2011, by Kevin Macdonald, Loressa Clisby, and Tegan Bukowski). The article provides a guide to popular cinema's interaction with and use of the possibilities offered by digital culture, revealing how the four selected films reflect digital culture themes. Each film demonstrates different aspects and dynamics of digital culture at a particular time, offering a unique look at that period's social and technological landscape through its portrayal of technological developments, human relations, cultural values, and social norms. Each film evaluates the impact of the digitization process on cinema from different perspectives, depicting how cinema adapts and responds to technological changes. (shrink)

In spite of the fact that there is a common reality, people know very little about death. However, the person who sees the limited life as an obstacle in the way of encountering in life has always been in search of immortality. As a result of this quest, death has occupied different positions in human life. These positions can be grouped under three headings as tamed death, foreign death, and unspoken death. In this context, according to the last approach which (...) is effective in the modern world, the death which is completely removed from the life of the individual has been turned into a phenomenon which should be avoided/ postponed, not something to be dealt with. Thus, death, becoming a lonely phenomenon rather than a social phenomenon, has become a business problem rather than an occupation that people are interested in. Death, on the other hand, must be a criterion that determines life rather than being an object determined by life. The purpose of studying in this context is to question the position occupied in the life of the modern individual by moving from the understanding of deaths developed in the historical process. (shrink)

The paper provides an overview of the evolution of Social Sciences with a focus on the Post-1945 period, known for major strides towards scientific, analytical, nonpartisan, multi-disciplinary and comprehensive study and research in different fields of Social Sciences. The paper discusses the gradual growth of Social Sciences in Pakistan in terms of increase in number of persons engaged in teaching, research and practice in various domains of Social Sciences, institutional facilities and availability of funds. There is a discussion of the (...) major features of the research work done in Social Sciences in Pakistan and its weaknesses and deficiencies. The paper argues that Social Sciences have become important for societies like Pakistan that face different types of social and political conflicts. The rise of religious extremism, violence and terrorism also requires that we benefit from the work done in different fields of Social Sciences for understanding the dynamics of societal trends, issues and conflict and how to address them. The paper also reviews teaching and research being done in Pakistani universities, especially since 2005, when more funds became available for study and research in Social Sciences. The universities have vastly expanded their Doctoral and M.Phil. porgrammes but the imperative of quality is often neglected. (shrink)

The role of state in the contemporary global system is greatly shaped by its inner or domestic strength that include economic resilience, socio-political harmony and a stable constitutional political order. These attributes cannot be achieved by a state unless it assigns the highest priority to human and societal development and promotion of egalitarian socio-economic arrangements that provide equal opportunities to all citizens irrespective of ethnicity, language, religion, caste, region or gender. The focus is on transforming human resources into human capital (...) through education, learning of technology and skills, and health care. There is now a greater emphasis on good governance and a fair and transparent political management and delivery of basic services to the society. This covers policy making and implementation regarding a host of key issues. It is also important to ensure that the fruits of economic growth are fairly distributed in the society. The state must work towards removing socio-economic inequities and disparities among people and regions. This paper examines the major factors responsible for the growing emphasis in state policy on human and social development as well as the historical evolution of this change. It is argued that the political developments in the 1990s and later contributed most in creating a global awareness about human and societal developments. These include, inter alia, the end of the Cold War, the collapse of some states, the rise of religious and cultural extremism and terrorism and the efforts of the various organs and agencies of the United Nations to promote human development and social stability. The paper also identifies the major obstacles in the developing countries, especially in Pakistan, to socio-economic development and distributive justice. (shrink)

AimThe aim of this study was to determine the presence of depressive symptoms and understand the potential factors associated with these symptoms among physicians in Bangladesh during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsA cross-sectional study using an online survey was conducted in between April 21 and May 10, 2020, among physicians living in Bangladesh. Participants completed a series of demographic questions, COVID-19-related questions, and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9. Descriptive statistics, test statistics were performed to explore the association between physicians’ experience of depression symptoms (...) and other study variables. Stepwise binary logistic regression was followed while conducting the multivariable analysis.ResultA total of 390 physicians completed the survey. Of them, 283 were found to be experiencing depressive symptoms. Predictors which were significantly associated with depressive symptoms were gender, the presence of sleep disturbance, being highly exposed to media coverage about the pandemic, and fear around COVID-19 infection, being assaulted/humiliated by regulatory forces and by the general public, while traveling to and from the hospital and treating patients during the countrywide lockdown.ConclusionThe findings of this study demonstrate that there is a high prevalence of depressive symptom among physicians especially among female physicians in Bangladesh during the COVID-19 pandemic. Immediate, adequate and effective interventions addressing gender specific needs are required amid this ongoing crisis and beyond. (shrink)

In this paper, we consider ethical issues related to the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in combat zones, via exposure therapy. Exposure-oriented interventions are the most well-researched behavioral treatments for PTSD, and rigorous studies across contexts, populations, and research groups provide robust evidence that exposure therapy for PTSD is effective and can be widely disseminated. Clinical procedures for Prolonged Exposure therapy, a manualized exposure-oriented protocol for PTSD, are reviewed, and we illustrate the potential benefits, as well as the potential (...) difficulties, associated with providing this treatment in combat zones. Several ethical considerations are identified: (1) Assuming successful treatment, is it ethical to send individuals with a known risk of developing PTSD back into combat? (2) If treatment is unsuccessful in theater (perhaps due to the confounding factor of ongoing danger), could that impact treatment effectiveness for soldiers who attempt therapy again post-deployment? (3) If the military finds combat-zone treatment effective and useful in maintaining an efficient work force, will treatment become mandatory for those diagnosed with PTSD? (4) What unintended consequences might be associated with large-scale dissemination of exposure therapy in or near combat, outside of mental health care infrastructures? (5) How would genetic variations known to be associated with PTSD risk influence decisions regarding who receives treatment or returns to combat? We conclude with a review of the personal and societal costs associated with not providing evidence-based PTSD treatments wherever possible. (shrink)

Treatment of military-related posttraumatic stress disorder is a major public health care concern. Since 2001 over 2.5 million troops have been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, many of whom have experienced direct combat and sustained threat. Estimates of PTSD rates related to these wars range from 8% to over 20%, or 192,000 to 480,000 individuals. Already, nearly 250,000 service members of Operations Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom, and New Dawn have sought VA health care services for PTSD. This recent increased need (...) for mental health services comes in addition to the ongoing needs of Vietnam-era and other veterans who continue to suffer from PTSD. PTSD is related to high co-morbidities of other mental health difficulties, poorer physical health status, and increased medical care utilization. Such high demand for services is an important contributor to the large cost associated with combat-related PTSD. Accordingly, promoting successful, cost-effective treatment strategies for PTSD is a chief public health care priority. (shrink)

Unifying the Universe: The Physics of Heaven and Earth presents a non-technical approach to physics for the lay-science enthusiast. This popular textbook, which evolved from a conceptual course at Cornell University, is intended for non-science undergraduate students taking their first physics module. This second edition maintains its unique approach in crossing boundaries between physics and humanities, with connections to art, poetry, history, and philosophy. It explores how the process of scientific thought is inextricably linked with cultural, creative, and aesthetic aspects (...) of human endeavor, opening the readers up to new ways of looking at the world. The text has been fully updated throughout to address current and exciting new topics in the field, such as exo-planets, the accelerating Universe, dark matter, dark energy, gravitational waves, super-symmetry, string theory, big bang cosmology, and the Higgs boson. There is also an entirely new chapter on the Quantum World, which connects the fascinating topics of quantum entanglement and quantum computing. Key Features: Provides a solid, yet accessible, background to basic physics without complex mathematics Uses a human interest approach to show how science is significant for more than its technological consequences Discusses the arts and philosophies of historical periods that are pertinent to the subject. (shrink)

In this article, we re-examine Pascal’s Mugging, and argue that it is a deeper problem than the St. Petersburg paradox. We offer a way out that is consistent with classical decision theory. Specifically, we propose a “many muggers” response analogous to the “many gods” objection to Pascal’s Wager. When a very tiny probability of a great reward becomes a salient outcome of a choice, such as in the offer of the mugger, it can be discounted on the condition that there (...) are other symmetric, non-salient rewards that one may receive if one chooses otherwise. (shrink)

Derrida, with the deconstruction philosophy, shook all movements, stances, remembering and forgetting, and changed the flow of the river of perception and thought with a deep and comprehensive operation of reasoning and perception. He has resurrected the understanding of fluidity, movement and process, which has been coming since Heraclitus and renewed in Nietzsche in its own way by formatting these concepts. It has changed the method of meaning and signification, redefining it as an event, an action. He used "writing" against (...) the upper philosophy movement that fiddled with his country. He displaced the language, the word from its place, and wreak havoc in response to the glances that do not spare his own language. He rejected domination, embracing the free meaning. He deciphered the "great game" within the tradition of European language and philosophy. The state and its philosophy that imposes its "structure" realizes its gradual dismantling. Here, the reality is that meaning appears as an action which is the deconstruction movement itself. His “writing” is the proof of the French language and way of thinking which he “he lived in”. The new crisis results from philosophy of life rather than the language of Europe. Deconstruction has been a letter which found the recipient of the philosophy of the new century. Therefore philosophy needs to reevaluate the situation in the field of language and writing. Deconstruction has deciphered the "great language game" of which it is a part, before the eyes of the world. (shrink)

Israel is a country of many cultures and languages and of several religions. The majority of the population adheres to the Jewish religion. The Moslem and the Christian religions come next in size, in that order. Similarly to many other countries in the region, religion fills a more central role in the public sphere of Israel than in most Western countries. It also influences the private sphere immensely, as for example in the matter of marriages and funerals which in most (...) cases are conducted by state employees who have been appointed by the religious establishments of each of the official religions. We are thus discussing religion in a context where it matters highly. Power, welfare and the very right to reside in the country are connected with religion. Symbols of statehood and collective identity are lent from religious texts, objects and rituals. The symbol of the state, the seven-armed golden candelabra, suggests the memory of the temples of Solomon and Herod where a similar one was standing. (shrink)

Farabi defines “Ilm al-Hiyal” in Ihsa al-Ulum as “knowing a way by which, human can adjust all of the concepts that have been proved in mathematics with verification to exotic objects, and helps their states in exotic objects to be carried”. He believes this will be recognized and be attained by craft. This was the common view in Islamic wisdom and philosophy in third and fourth Hijra centuries. Researchers believe that the unique emphasis on parallelism between theoretical science and practical (...) work is an important feature of Baghdad school and affected Islamic visual culture. Baghdad school had been affected by translation. In this way, Ikhwan-al-Safa, whom wrote the first encyclopedia of science in Islamic culture, had a very efficient role. They devised geometry into intellectual and sensual ones in the second part of their book, al-Rasa-el, and considered intellectual geometry as one of the middle philosophy and recognition and understanding factor for meaning of sensual geometry evidences. They insisted on basic situation of intellectual geometry in guidance of whom, want to learn intellectual things from sensual ones. They knew intellectual geometry as the factor for requiring skill in scientific crafts, and sensual geometry as the factor of practical crafts, and made a vast relation between them. They also defined end of intellectual geometry understanding the base of all sciences and the main factor of wise, essence of self. Important feature of Ikhwan-al-Safa’s wisdom is omitting the gap between theory and practice, making a vast relation between them, which affected the meaning of crafts in Islamic culture, and rendered a spiritual feature to crafts and arts. It seems this relation has created the concept of traditional arts, and integrating wisdom and crafts in Iranian-Islamic culture constructed all of the Fotowat-Nam e. This article reviews the concept, which affiliates theory and practice in third and fourth centuries and has a deep effect on recognition of art and craft in Islamic culture. (shrink)

This paper presents a new boosting algorithm called NormalBoost which is capable of classifying a multi-dimensional binary class dataset. It adaptively combines several weak classifiers to form a strong classifier. Unlike many boosting algorithms which have high computation and memory complexities, NormalBoost is capable of classification with low complexity. Since NormalBoost assumes the dataset to be continuous, it is also noise resistant because it only deals with the means and standard deviations of each dimension. Experiments conducted to evaluate its performance (...) shows that NormalBoost performs almost the same as AdaBoost in the classification rate. However, NormalBoost performs 189 times faster than AdaBoost and employs a very little amount of memory when a dataset of 2 million samples with 50 dimensions is invoked. (shrink)