This paper examines the relationship between turnover among chief executive officers and corporate sustainability performance by identifying the influence of two major types of succession to the top job and the reasons for change. Our model also integrates the firm’s past prioritization of CSP and the impact of a company’s participation in the Global Reporting Initiative. Upper echelons theory and agency theory frameworks are adopted to understand CSP. Using an analysis of panel data for 88 public companies across 13 years (...) in France, we find that a change of chief executive has a positive and significant effect on CSP 5 years after the change. This positive effect is stronger when the new CEO is recruited from outside the firm. The impact on CSP is invariably positive and significant, except for voluntary departures. The arrival of a new CEO affects CSP less when the firm has already achieved a high standard of CSP and participates in the GRI. These results are obtained after controlling CSP determinants already validated in the literature. The findings show that expectations of CEOs are not solely economic and financial but also concern CSP. In terms of governance, they should prompt shareholders looking to strengthen CSP to choose new CEOs from outside the firm and to encourage the firm to participate in the GRI. (shrink)

This book offers the first comprehensive introduction to one of the most significant Arab thinkers of the late 20th century and the early 21st century: the Moroccan philosopher and social theorist Mohammed Abed al-Jabri. With his intellectual and political engagement, al-Jabri has influenced the development of a modern reading of the Islamic tradition in the broad Arab-Islamic world and has been, in recent years, subject to an increasing interest among Muslims and non-Muslim scholars, social activists and lay men. The contributors (...) to this volume read al-Jabri with reference to prominent past Arab-Muslim scholars, such as Ibn Rushd, al-Ghazali, al-Shatibi, and Ibn Khaldun, as well as contemporary Arab philosophers, like Hassan Hanafi, Abdellah Laroui, George Tarabishi, Taha Abderrahmane; they engage with various aspects of his intellectual project, and trace his influence in non-Arab-Islamic lands, like Indonesia, as well. His analysis of Arab thought since the 1970s as a harbinger analysis of the ongoing “Arab Spring uprising” remains relevant for today's political challenges in the region. (shrink)

Using a sample of 21,030 US firm-year observations that represents more than 3000 individual firms over the 1998–2012 period, we investigate the relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and investment efficiency. We provide strong and robust evidence that high CSR involvement decreases investment inefficiency and consequently increases investment efficiency. This result is consistent with our expectations that high CSR firms enjoy low information asymmetry and high stakeholder solidarity (stakeholder theory). Moreover, our findings suggest that CSR components that are directly related (...) to firms’ primary stakeholders (e.g. employee relations, product characteristics, environment, and diversity) are more relevant in reducing investment inefficiency compared with those related to secondary stakeholders (e.g. human rights and community involvement). Finally, additional results show that the effect of CSR on investment efficiency is more pronounced during the subprime crisis. Taken together, our results highlight the important role that CSR plays in shaping firms’ investment behaviour and efficiency. (shrink)

We show that the U.S. anti-discriminatory laws prohibiting discrimination in the workplace based on sexual orientation and gender identity identities) spur innovation, which ultimately leads to higher firm performance. We use the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index of 398 U.S. firms between 2011 and 2014, and find a significantly positive relationship between CEI and firm innovation. We also find that an interacting effect of CEI and firm innovation leads to higher firm performance. We use our understanding of Rawls’ Theory (...) of Justice and stakeholder theory to show that firms with workplace diversity policies are likely to be more innovative and perform better than those without such policies. Our results are robust to endogeneity, reverse causality and simultaneity issues. Our results will trigger debate in similar markets around the globe on the economic benefits of LGBT workplace diversity policies for firms. (shrink)

The main purpose of this paper is to better understand how sustainability rating agencies, through discourse, promote an “ideology of numbers” that ultimately aims to establish a regime of normalization governing social and environmental performance. Drawing on Thompson’s (Ideology and modern culture: Critical social theory in the era of mass communication, 1990 ) modes of operation of ideology, we examine the extent to which, and how, the ideology of numbers is reflected on websites and public documents published by a range (...) of sustainability rating agencies. Our analysis indicates that the ideology of numbers promotes a relatively narrow vision of corporate social and environmental responsibility. That is, it establishes some areas of visibility while leaving in the shadow certain aspects of the ways in which companies fulfill, or fail to meet, their social and environmental responsibilities. The ideology of numbers also exerts power by identifying those companies that are deemed to be worthy of inclusion, or not, in a supposedly socially responsible corporate elite. (shrink)

In 2022, the Research Center for Islamic Legislation & Ethics (CILE) and the World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) submitted a proposal to host the 17th edition of the World Congress of Bioethics. After announcing that the CILE‐WISH proposal was the winning bid, concerns were raised by bioethicists based in Europe and the USA. To address these concerns, the International Association of Bioethics (IAB) developed a dedicated FAQ section, in coordination with the host institutions, for the first time in IAB (...) history. One‐to‐one communication ensued and individual responses were shared with these colleagues. As a continuation of this conversation, we (CILE Acting Director, WISH Research Fellow and Head of Content, and WISH CEO) address the concerns raised in the Letter‐to‐the‐Editor of Bioethics by Graaf et al. As we support the call to revisit some contentious issues within the global community of bioethicists, we maintain that this should be based on meticulously discussed, informed, consistent and equitable criteria. We also argue that mutual learning from diverse cultures and moral traditions is the optimal way for our scholarly community to be truly global and to eschew the flaws ensuing from ethnocentric discourses. (shrink)

A Critique of Localized Realism Abstract In an attempt to avert Laudan’s pessimistic induction, Worrall and Psillos introduce a narrower version of scientific realism. According to this version, which can be referred to as “localized realism”, realists need not accept every component in a successful theory. They are supposed only to accept those components that led to the theory’s empirical success. Consequently, realists can avoid believing in dubious entities like the caloric and ether. This paper examines and critiques localized realism. (...) It also scrutinizes Psillos’s historical study of the caloric theory of heat, which is intended to support localized realism. (shrink)

This paper explores the important role of critical science, and in particular of post-colonial and decolonial theories, in understanding and shaping the ongoing advances in artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence is viewed as amongst the technological advances that will reshape modern societies and their relations. While the design and deployment of systems that continually adapt holds the promise of far-reaching positive change, they simultaneously pose significant risks, especially to already vulnerable peoples. Values and power are central to this discussion. Decolonial theories (...) use historical hindsight to explain patterns of power that shape our intellectual, political, economic, and social world. By embedding a decolonial critical approach within its technical practice, AI communities can develop foresight and tactics that can better align research and technology development with established ethical principles, centring vulnerable peoples who continue to bear the brunt of negative impacts of innovation and scientific progress. We highlight problematic applications that are instances of coloniality, and using a decolonial lens, submit three tactics that can form a decolonial field of artificial intelligence: creating a critical technical practice of AI, seeking reverse tutelage and reverse pedagogies, and the renewal of affective and political communities. The years ahead will usher in a wave of new scientific breakthroughs and technologies driven by AI research, making it incumbent upon AI communities to strengthen the social contract through ethical foresight and the multiplicity of intellectual perspectives available to us, ultimately supporting future technologies that enable greater well-being, with the goal of beneficence and justice for all. (shrink)

The ethical climate in Turkey is beset by ethical problems. Bribery, environmental pollution, tax frauds, deceptive advertising, production of unsafe products, and the ethical violations that involved politicians and business professionals are just a few examples. The purpose of this study is to compare and contrast the ethical beliefs of American and Turkish consumers using the Ethical Position Questionnaire (EPQ) of Forsyth (1980), the Machiavellianism scale, and the Consumer Ethical Practices of Muncy and Vitell questionnaire (MVQ). A sample of 376 (...) subjects that consists of American consumers (n = 188) and Turkish consumers (n = 199) was used to compare the ethical beliefs and practices of the two samples. The MANOVA results for the two nationality groups found that five out of six criterion variables differed between the two groups. The implications of this study are intended to assist marketers to develop strategies that suit a particular market and lessen their risk of entry. (shrink)

For researchers in Aotearoa New Zealand who intend to conduct research with people, it is common practice to first ensure that their proposals are approved by a Human Research Ethics Committee. HRECs take the role of reviewing, approving or rejecting research proposals and deciding on whether the intended research will be completed in the ‘right’, rather than the ‘wrong’ way. Such decisions are based upon a system which is guided by universal ethical principles – principles that assume there is universal (...) agreement about the ethically right way to conduct research. Increasingly, Aotearoa New Zealand is becoming more culturally diverse. Actions that are assumed as ‘right’ in reference to ethical norms endorsed in one culture or society may not always be considered ‘right’ in reference to ethical norms in another culture or society. In this article we first set out what is already known in the literature about the origins and applications of universal ethics in a research context. Next, we analyse how... (shrink)

This volume examines whether the Arab Uprisings introduce a replica of the European Enlightenment or rather stimulate an Arab/Islamic Awakening with its own cultural specificity and political philosophy. By placing Immanuel Kant in Tahrir Square, Cairo, this book adopts a comparative analysis of two enlightenment projects: one Arab, still under construction, with possible progression toward modernity or regression toward neo-authoritarianism, and one European, shaped by the past two centuries.

Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are increasingly creeping into the work sphere, thereby gradually questioning and/or disturbing the long-established moral concepts and norms communities have been using to define what makes work good. Each community, and Muslims make no exception in this regard, has to revisit their moral world to provide well-thought frameworks that can engage with the challenging ethical questions raised by the new phenomenon of AI-mediated work. For a systematic analysis of the broad topic of AI-mediated work ethics from (...) an Islamic perspective, this article focuses on presenting an accessible overview of the “moral world” of work in the Islamic tradition. Three main components of this moral world were selected due to their relevance to the AI context, namely (1) Work is inherently good for humans, (2) Practising a religiously permitted profession and (c) Maintaining good relations with involved stakeholders. Each of these three components is addressed in a distinct section, followed by a sub-section highlighting the relevance of the respective component to the particular context of AI-mediated work. The article argues that there are no unsurmountable barriers in the Islamic tradition against the adoption of AI technologies in work sphere. However, important precautions should be considered to ensure that embracing AI will not be at the cost of work-related moral values. The article also highlights how important lessons can be learnt from the positive historical experience of automata that thrived in the Islamic civilization. (shrink)

Hacking and other entity realists suggest a strategy to build scientific realism on a stronger foundation than inference to the best explanation. They argue that if beliefs in the existence of theoretical entities are derived from experimentation rather than theories, they can escape the antirealist's criticism and provide a stronger ground for realism. In this paper, an outline and a critique of entity realism are presented. It will be argued that entity realism cannot stand as a separate position from classical (...) realism. Thus, entity realism cannot avoid the problems facing classical realism.. (shrink)

Recently, due to the rapid progress of computer technology, researchers develop an effective computer program to enhance the achievement of the student in learning process, which is Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS). Science is important because it influences most aspects of everyday life, including food, energy, medicine, leisure activities and more. So learning science subject at school is very useful, but the students face some problem in learning it. So we designed an ITS system to help them understand this subject easily (...) and smoothly by analyzing it and explaining it in a systematic way. In this paper, we describe the design of an Intelligent Tutoring System for teaching science for grade seven to help students know the 7 characteristics for living things smoothly. The system provides all topics of living things and generates some questions for each topic and the students should answer these questions correctly to move to the next level. In the result of an evaluation of the ITS, students like the system and they said that it is very useful for them and for their studies. (shrink)

Islamic bioethics is in good health, this article argues. During the twentieth century, academic researchers had to deal with a number of difficulties including the scarcity of available Islamic sources. However, the twenty-first century witnessed significant breakthroughs in the field of Islamic bioethics. A growing number of normative works authored by Muslim religious scholars and studies conducted by academic researchers have been published. This nascent field also proved to be appealing for research-funding institutions in the Muslim world and also in (...) the West, such as the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). On the other hand, the article argues that contemporary Islamic bioethics is in need of addressing news issues and adopting new approaches for the sake of maintaining and improving this good health in the future. (shrink)

In this paper we introduce a stochastic model for a population living and migrating between s sites without distinction in the states between residents and immigrants. The evolutionary stable strategies is characterized by the maximization of a stochastic growth rate. We obtain that the expectation of reproductive values, normalized by some random quantity, are constant on all sites and that the expectation of the normalized vector population structure is proportional to eigenvector of the dispersion matrix associated to eigenvalue one, which (...) are, in some way, analogous to the results obtained in the deterministic case. (shrink)

The centenary of Karl Jaspers' General Psychopathology was recognised in 2013 with the publication of a volume of essays dedicated to his work. Leading phenomenological-psychopathologists and philosophers of psychiatry examined Jaspers notion of empathic understanding and his declaration that certain schizophrenic phenomena are ‘un-understandable’. The consensus reached by the authors was that Jaspers operated with a narrow conception of phenomenology and empathy and that schizophrenic phenomena can be understood through what they variously called second-order and radical empathy. This article offers (...) a critical examination of the second-order empathic stance along phenomenological and ethical lines. It asks: Is second-order empathy possible? Is the second-order empathic stance an ethically acceptable attitude towards persons diagnosed with schizophrenia? I argue that second-order empathy is an incoherent method that cannot be realised. Further, the attitude promoted by this method is ethically problematic insofar as the emphasis placed on radical otherness disinvests persons diagnosed with schizophrenia from a fair chance to participate in the public construction of their identity and, hence, to redress traditional symbolic injustices. (shrink)

We show that the conceptual distance between any two theories of first-order logic is the same as the generator distance between their Lindenbaum–Tarski algebras of concepts. As a consequence of this, we show that, for any two arbitrary mathematical structures, the generator distance between their meaning algebras (also known as cylindric set algebras) is the same as the conceptual distance between their first-order logic theories. As applications, we give a complete description for the distances between meaning algebras corresponding to structures (...) having at most three elements and show that this small network represents all the possible conceptual distances between complete theories. As a corollary of this, we will see that there are only two non-trivial structures definable on three-element sets up to conceptual equivalence (i.e., up to elementary plus definitional equivalence). (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is modelling and controlling the spread of COVID-19 disease in Morocco. A nonlinear mathematical model with two subclasses of infectious individuals is proposed. The population is divided into five classes, namely, susceptible, exposed, undiagnosed infectious, diagnosed patients, and removed individuals. To reflect the real dynamic of the COVID-19 transmission in Morocco, the real reported data are used for estimating model parameters. Two controls representing screening effort and limited treatment are considered. Based on viability theory and (...) set-valued analysis, a Lyapunov function is constructed such that both exposed and infected populations are decreased to zero asymptotically. The corresponding controls are derived via a continuous selection of adequately designed feedback map. Numerical simulations are presented with three scenarios. Our results show that when only one control is to be applied, screening is the most effective in decreasing the number of people in the three infected compartments, whereas combining both controls is found to be highly effective and leads to a significant improvement in the epidemiological situation of Morocco. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first one that applies the set-valued approach to a controlled COVID-19 model which agrees with the observed cases in Morocco. (shrink)

تَتَنَاوَلُ هذه الدِّراسَةُ الوظيفة التي تؤدِّيها هيرمينوطيقا ريكور، بوصفها فَلْسَفَةً للترجمة وَفَلْسَفَةً بوصفها تَرْجَمَةً. تنطلقُ من إطلالةٍ، عامة، على نظريات ريكور في ضوء تاريخ فلسفة الترجمة، وتوضح الكيفية التي اقتفى بها خطى غادامر في فهم عملية التَّرجمة، بوصفها فنًّا للتفاوض والوساطة بين الذَّات والآخر. وتَسْتَكشف الباراديغم الهيرمينوطيقي للترجمة الذي طوره ريكور في أعماله اللاحقة من خلال مظاهر ثلاثة رئيسة: لسانية، وأنطولوجية، وأخلاقية. وتنتهي الدِّراسة بمناقشة الدَّور الحاسم الذي تَلعبه التَّرجمة في مسائلِ الضّيافة والتَّعددية والصَّفح. -/- تمثّل التَّرجمة سمةً جوهريّةً ومركزيّةً (...) في فلسفة بول ريكور، وبالرغم من أنه لم يجعلها موضوعًا صريحًا في أعماله، إلا أنَّها كانت حاضرةً، بقوةٍ، في ممارساته الفلسفية. كان ريكور وسيطًا بارعًا، وشخصًا يُتْقِنُ فن التَّحكيم والتَّفاوض بين المواقف المتضاربة (=والمتباينة). لا يُضاهى بول ريكور في دبلوماسيته التَّبادلية حين يتعلق الأمر بالأفكار الفلسفية، حيث كان يجد دائمًا نقاطًا مشتركة - وإن لم يكن دائمًا يصل دائماً إلى حلٍّ نهائيٍّ - بين وجهات النَّظر المتناقضة في ظاهرها، لكن دعنا نفكر في وساطتهِ الدَّائمة والانتقال الذي قام به بين التفكير القاريّ والأنغلوسكسوني، على المستوى العام، ثم على المستوى القاري، ووساطته بين الوجودية والهيغلية؛ بين علم الاستدلال والنّقدية النظرية؛ بين علم الظواهر والعلوم الإنسانية؛ بين التحليل النفسي الفرويدي والجدليات الهيغلية؛ بين نظرية الأدب وفلسفة الدّين؛ بين الفهم التَّاريخي (Verstehen) والتَّفسير العلميِّ (Erklären)، بين علم النفس وعلم الأعصاب، بين الأخلاق والسِّياسة، وهكذا دواليك. وينبغي النَّظر، في النهاية، إلى جهوده العَديدةِ في إقحامِ التَّرجمة في إطار الهيرمينوطيقا ذاتها، بين الهيرمينوطيقا الرومانسية (المستمدةِ من شليرماخر، وديلتاي) والهيرمينوطيقا النقدية أو الهيرمينوطيقا الراديكالية (التي طورها هابرماس وديريدا على التوالي). -/- ما يُلفت النَّظر - في هذه الوساطات النَّقدية كلِّها - أنَّ ريكور لم يتوقف، إطلاقاً، عن احترام طَرفي التبادل المتَنازعين؛ إذ يحوّل ببراعة الصِّراع إلى حِوَارٍ، من دُون التَّنَازل عن عمق الاعتقاد أو دقَّة التَّقييم. وفي اعتقادي لا يضاهي ريكور من معاصريه أحدٌ في دوره الفلسفيّ كمترجم. وفي الواقع، يمكن القول إنَّ فكر ريكور يجسّد كلًّا من الفلسفة بوصفها ترجمةً وكفلسفةٍ عن التَّرجمة. وسأركز، في ما يلي، بشكل رئيس على النقطة الأخيرة. (shrink)

We continue the analysis of foundations of positive model theory as introduced by Ben Yaacov and Poizat. The objects of this analysis are $h$-inductive theories and their models, especially the “positively” existentially closed ones. We analyze topological properties of spaces of types, introduce forms of quantifier elimination, and characterize minimal completions of arbitrary $h$-inductive theories. The main technical tools consist of various forms of amalgamations in special classes of structures.

Normativity is assessed as we evaluate and compare the environmental reporting practices of a sample of French and Canadian companies through the lens of institutional legitimacy. More specifically, we examine how French and Canadian firms changed their reporting practices in reaction to the promulgation of laws and regulations in their respective countries, i.e., the NER and Grenelle II Acts in France, and National Instrument 51-102 and CSA Staff Notice NR 51-333, issued by the Canadian Securities Administrators. The firms’ voluntary disclosures (...) according to GRI guidelines are also investigated. Substantive legitimacy theory is used to explore the level of substantive disclosures provided by Canadian and French firms. The findings reveal that the French parliamentary regime is more successful than the Canadian stock exchange regulation in triggering environmental reporting, and that the GRI combined with local regimes prompts environmental disclosures. Notwithstanding the improvements in environmental reporting under all three regimes, a very low level of substantive disclosure is noted in both countries. (shrink)

The evolution of Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) is the result of the amount of research in the field of education and artificial intelligence in recent years. English is the third most common languages in the world and also is the internationally dominant in the telecommunications, science and trade, aviation, entertainment, radio and diplomatic language as most of the areas of work now taught in English. Therefore, the demand for learning English has increased. In this paper, we describe the design of (...) an Intelligent Tutoring System for teaching English language grammar to help students learn English grammar easily and smoothly. The system provides all topics of English grammar and generates a series of questions automatically for each topic for the students to solve. The system adapts with all the individual differences of students and begins gradually with students from easier to harder level. The intelligent tutoring system was given to a group of students of all age groups to try it and to see the impact of the system on students. The results showed a good satisfaction of the students toward the system. (shrink)

Islamic Perspectives on the Principles of Biomedical Ethics presents results from a pioneering seminar in 2013 between Muslim religious scholars, biomedical scientists, and Western bioethicists at the research Center for Islamic Legislation & Ethics, Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies. By examining principle-based bioethics, the contributors to this volume addressed a number of key issues related to the future of the field. Discussion is based around the role of religion in bioethical reasoning, specifically from an Islamic perspective. Also considered is a (...) presentation of the concept of universal principles for bioethics, with a response looking at the possibility (or not) of involving religion. Finally, there is in-depth analysis of how far specific disciplines within the Islamic tradition -- such as the higher objectives of Sharia (maqāṣid al-Sharī'ah) and legal maxims (qawā'id fiqhīyah) -- can enrich principle-based bioethics. (shrink)

The study aims to identify the reality of management of electronic documents and electronic archiving retirement in the Palestinian Pension Agency -analytical study, as well as to recognize the reality of the current document management system in the Palestinian Pension Agency. The study found the following results: that the reality of the current system for the management of documents in the agency is weak and suffers from many jams. Employee in the agency understand the importance and benefits of the management (...) of electronic documents system, where the application of electronic document management system provide important features and benefits most of which reduce the loss of documents between departments, illustrates the flow path, the speed, accuracy, transparency, and reduce the proportion of damage and destruction of files. Furthermore, the electronic documents system cost will be less than the cost of the current system and it will reduce the tasks assigned for the staff. The existence of a clear adoption of the agency for the policies and procedures established for the application of electronic documents management system. There are weak plans for training and developing of staff in the agency to raise their efficiency. The study found a set of recommendations, including: increased interest and awareness of the need to implement policies, mechanisms, and procedures to ensure the success of electronic document management system through benefiting from the experiences of other organizations and the private sector. The agency need to increase and develop its services for retirees in order to encourage the private sector, universities, and institutions to join the agency, and open the way for all segments of society in Gaza and West Bank and enhance its competitiveness between international social security institutions. The need to focus its attention on developing and publishing appropriate clear plans and specific goals about management of electronic documents and the agency should be committed to apply them. The need to focus on the establishment of a public management of archiving in the structure dealing with all technical operations and having competent and qualified employees in the field of electronic document management. The need to focus on the Palestinian National Archives and the follow-up with the international standards by the International Council Archives (ICA). (shrink)

Cet article apporte des arguments supplémentaires en faveur de l’hypothèse tête-complément dans les racines verbales en tachelhit. Initialement proposée pour rendre compte de la distribution des consonnes dans les racines trilitères ainsi que de la gémination au thème de l’inaccompli, cette hypothèse stipule que les racines contenant une suite obstruante-sonante possèdent une structure hiérarchique binaire où l’obstruante est la tête de la racine et la sonante son complément. Pour justifier le rôle de tête des consonnes obstruantes, cet article évoque le (...) principe de complexité. Dans le cadre de la théorie des éléments, les consonnes obstruantes sont considérées comme plus complexes que les sonantes ; la complexité étant mesurée en termes du nombre d’éléments qui constituent le segment : plus le segment contient d’éléments, plus il est complexe. Dans les cas où la complexité s’avère insuffisante, il est proposé que les consonnes dont la tête est occupée par l’élément |ʔ| ou |h| sont plus fortes que les autres. (shrink)

Abstract. In January 1985, about 80 Muslim religious scholars and biomedical scientists gathered in a symposium held in Kuwait to discuss the broad question “When does human life begin?” This article argues that this symposium is one of the milestones in the field of contemporary Islamic bioethics and independent legal reasoning (Ijtihād). The proceedings of the symposium, however, escaped the attention of academic researchers. This article is meant to fill in this research lacuna by analyzing the proceedings of this symposium, (...) the relevant subsequent developments, and finally the interplay of Islam and the West as a significant dimension in these discussions. (shrink)

The challenge of understanding psychotic phenomena is one of the enduring problems in the philosophy of psychiatry. The first to formulate the problem in its philosophical dimension was Karl Jaspers in General Psycho-pathology. Jasper’s solution was rather pessimistic, for he argued that we cannot extend empathic understanding to certain phenomena, such as primary delusions. His work was followed by a long period of philosophical silence on the issue, and it was only three decades ago that philosophy began to engage once (...) again with the problem of understanding. Today there is a rich literature that explores this problem: from philosophy of language to European phenomenology, and from theories... (shrink)

أَخَذَ النصُّ القرآنيُّ حيّزاً وافراً من الاهتمامِ والتّأليف، على امتدادِ القَرنِ التّاسع عَشَر وبداية القرنِ العشرين. تَقَعُ مُحَاوَلةُ الإصلاحيّةِ الإسْلاميّةِ في إعَادَةِ تَفْسِيرِ القُرْآنِ وفق شُرُوطٍ عَصْريَّةٍ، في مدارِ ما يمكنُ الاصطلاحُ عليه بـــ "التّفسير العقلاني"، وتعني العَقْلَنَةُ، في هذا المقام، إخْراجَ تَفْسِيرِ القرآنِ، وأشكالِ فهمه وتلقّيهِ، من دوائر الأسْطَرةِ التي غلّفتهُ لردحٍ طويل من الزّمنِ، حَيْثُ بلغتْ العَقْلَنَةُ ذروةَ نشاطها معَ بعضٍ من أَعْلَام الفكر الإصلاحيِّ، خاصَّةً معَ محمّد عبده. لكنّ، هذه المحاولة الإصلاحيّة، سرعان ما انكفتْ على أعقابها، وَوَلَجَتْ (...) طَريقاً ضَيِّقاً بفعلِ أزماتٍ متتاليّةٍ واجهها العربُ والمسلمون. تَسْعَى هَذِهِ الدِّرَاسَةُ إلى بَيَانِ مَدْلُولِ الإصلاحِ المتَعَلِّقِ بإعَادَةِ قراءة النّص القرآنيِّ، في مستوييه الاجتماعيّ واللّغويّ. والحديثُ عنْ هَذا الشكلِ من الإصلاح هو حديثٌ عن لحظةٍ قاومَتْ فيها قيمُ التَّنوير ضروب التّقليدِ. غير أنَّ استئناف هذا المشروعِ الإصلاحيِّ، قد أمسى من الضّروراتِ، التي لا حِوَلَ عنها من أجلِ الانتقال إلى طور الحداثة. The Qur’anic text received abundant attention and authorship throughout the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. Islamic Reform attempt to re-interpret the Qur'an in accordance with modern conditions, in the orbit of what may be termed a "rational interpretation", we mean by "rationalization" , in this place, the results of the Qur'anic interpretations, forms understood and receives, from circles of mythologizing that wrap it up a long of time, where Reasoning reached the height of its activity with some of the reformist thinkers, especially with Mohamed Abduh. However, this attempt of reform ended in its wake, entering a narrow road due to successive crises faced by Arabs and Muslims This study seeks to clarify the meaning of reform related to re-reading the Qur’anic text, on two levels social and linguistic. The discussion about this form of reform is about a moment when the values of the Enlightenment resisted the sorts of tradition. However, the resumption of this reform project has become an indispensable necessity for the transition to modernity. (shrink)

. In the wake of the February 1997 announcement that Dolly the sheep had been cloned, Muslim religious scholars together with Muslim scientists held two conferences to discuss cloning from an Islamic perspective. They were organized by two influential Islamic international religioscientific institutions: the Islamic Organization of Medical Sciences and the International Islamic Fiqh Academy. Both institutions comprise a large number of prominent religious scholars and well‐known scientists who participated in the discussions at the conferences. This article gives a comprehensive (...) analysis of these conferences, the relation between science and religion as reflected in the discussions there, and the further influence of these discussions on Muslims living in the West. Modern discussions on Islamic bioethics show that formulating an Islamic perspective on these issues is not the exclusive prerogative of religious scholars. Formulating such perspectives has become a collective process in which scientists play an essential role. Such a collective approach strengthens the religious authority of Muslim scholars and makes it more influential rather than undermining it. (shrink)