The absence of colonial and post-colonial examinations of the conflict-ravaged Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) – a Bangladesh’s distant fringe– warranted me to explore how colonial legacy facilitated the post-colonial statist approach and majoritarian Bengali supremacists’ tendencies to exploit and subjugate the distinct CHT culture. This reconnaissance endeavour finds that the history of extortion of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT)indigenous peoples is a suitable example of racism victims, and thus it examines in the light of the colonial and post-colonial discourses. This (...) explorative study – based on secondary sources of data – finds the very ideas of racism practices, especially identity politics, demographic politics, and women’s subjugation, are prevalent in this postcolonial (and internally colonised) terrain. Philosophy and Progress, Vol#71-72; No#1-2; Jan-Dec 2022 P 61-77. (shrink)

This study examines the impact of the Chief Executive Officer ’s interlocking, created through serving on other companies’ audit committees and/or boards, on corporate social responsibility performance of the focal company and that of its linked companies. We find that CEO interlocking positively affects CSR performance of both the focal company and its linked companies. Further analysis shows that interlocks created by the CEO enhance CSR performance and in turn the financial performance of both the focal company and its linked (...) companies. Our findings are robust to a battery of analyses, including Heckman’s selection bias correction, propensity score matching, alternative measures of CSR performance, and CEO interlocks. These findings are important to regulators, company management teams, and other stakeholders with an interest in how the social ties of CEOs influence companies’ CSR performance and in the CSR–financial performance nexus. (shrink)

In this research work, we have explored the physical and topological properties of the crystal structure of metal-insulator transition superlattice. In recent times, two-dimensional substantial have enamored comprehensive considerations owing to their novel ophthalmic and mechanical properties for anticipated employment. Recently, some researchers put their interest in modifying this material into useful forms in human life. Also, Metal-Insulator Transition Superlattice is useful in form of a thin film to utilize as two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides. Moreover, we have defined the computed-based (...) bond properties such as the degree constructed topological indices and their heat of formation for single crystal and monolayered structure of Ge-Sb-Te. Also, this structure is one of the most interesting composites in modern resources of science. (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)

This paper demonstrates the political perspective of corporate social responsibility disclosures and, drawing on Weber’s notion of traditionalism, seeks to explain what motivates companies to make such disclosures in a traditional setting. Annual reports of 23 banking companies in Bangladesh are analysed over the period 2009–2012. This is supplemented by a review of documentary evidence on the political and social activities of corporations and reports published in national and international newspapers. We found that, in the banking companies over the period (...) of study, apparently neutral, corporate, philanthropic activities disclosed and promoted in CSR reports are inextricably linked to powerful leaders’ personal projects and the ruling party’s agendas. We have demonstrated elements of traditional societies, including personal loyalty and the public display of loyalty, the master–servant relationship, and obedience to personal rather than formal authority, provide an understanding of why banks have employed politically charged CSR disclosure strategies. The paper contributes to disclosure studies where political motivations of corporate disclosure rarely discussed. The paper extends the debate on political CSR by demonstrating that the role of family and familial values at the organisational and national levels may be much more important when it comes to CSR disclosure and activities. (shrink)

To avoid exorbitant and extensive laboratory experiments, QSPR analysis, based on topological descriptors, is a very constructive statistical approach for analyzing the numerous physical and chemical properties of compounds. Therefore, we presented some new entropy measures which are based on the sum of the neighborhood degree of the vertices. Firstly, we made the partition of the edges of benzene derivatives which are based on the degree sum of neighboring vertices and then computed the neighborhood version of entropies. Secondly, we made (...) use of the software SPSS for developing a correlation between newly introduced entropies and the physicochemical properties of benzene derivatives. Our obtained results demonstrated that the critical temperature C T, critical pressure C P, and critical volume C V can be predicted through fifth geometric arithmetic entropy, second S K entropy, and fifth N D entropy, respectively. Other remaining physical characteristics include Gibb’s energy qℰ, log P, molar refractivity ℳℛ, and Henry’s law ℋℒ that can be predicted by using sixth N D entropy. (shrink)

Graph theory is one of those subjects that is a vital part of the digital world. It is used to monitor the movement of robots on a network, to debug computer networks, to develop algorithms, and to analyze the structural properties of chemical structures, among other things. It is also useful in airplane scheduling and the study of diffusion mechanisms. The parameters computed in this article are very useful in pattern recognition and image processing. A number d f, w = (...) min d w, t, d w, s is referred as distance between f = t s an edge and w a vertex. d w, f 1 ≠ d w, f 2 implies that two edges f 1, f 2 ∈ E are resolved by node w ∈ V. A set of nodes A is referred to as an edge metric generator if every two links/edges of Γ are resolved by some nodes of A and least cardinality of such sets is termed as edge metric dimension, e dim Γ for a graph Γ. A set B of some nodes of Γ is a mixed metric generator if any two members of V ∪ E are resolved by some members of B. Such a set B with least cardinality is termed as mixed metric dimension, m dim Γ. In this paper, the metric dimension, edge metric dimension, and mixed metric dimension of dragon graph T n, m, line graph of dragon graph L T n, m, paraline graph of dragon graph L S T n, m, and line graph of line graph of dragon graph L L T n, m have been computed. It is shown that these parameters are constant, and a comparative analysis is also given for the said families of graphs. (shrink)

Generally toxic employees are under performers, yet some get better salaries and excel at workplace, getting positioned at higher ranks. This research assesses the relationship between the dark triad (Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and Psychopathy) and perceived victimization with a focus on the mediating effect of abusive supervision and the moderating effect of mindfulness. The data were gathered in three waves. Both the structural equation model with partial least square and Process were used to analyze the data. The study findings suggest that (...) abusive supervision plays a mediating role in the association between the dark triad and perceived victimization. However, the results did not support the mediating role of abusive supervision in the association between narcissism and perceived victimization. Moreover, the findings suggest that mindfulness weakens the effect of abusive supervision on perceived victimization. Furthermore, our findings support the mediated-moderation model. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are also discussed. (shrink)

Keyword extraction refers to the process of selecting most significant, relevant, and descriptive terms as keywords, which are present inside a single document. Keyword extraction has major applications in the information retrieval domain, such as analysis, summarization, indexing, and search, of documents. In this paper, we present a novel supervised technique for extraction of keywords from medium-sized documents, namely Corpus-based Contextual Semantic Smoothing. CCSS extends the concept of Contextual Semantic Smoothing, which considers term usage patterns in similar texts to improve (...) term relevance information. We introduce four more features beyond CSS as our novel contributions in this work. We systematically compare the performance of CCSS with other techniques, when implemented over INSPEC dataset, where CCSS outperforms all state-of-the-art keyphrase extraction techniques presented in the literature. (shrink)

Topological indices are numeric parameters which portray the topology of a subatomic structure. In QSAR/QSPR analysis, topological descriptors play a vital role to examine the topology of a network. An interconnection network is a structure whose components are connected physically according to some pattern. In this paper, an interconnection network, ternary hypertree, which is a structural combination of complete ternary tree and hypertree, is introduced. We have evaluated the topological descriptors grounded on the distances for the ternary hypertree. The analytical (...) expressions for Wiener, different types of Szeged, and Mostar indices are determined. (shrink)

Background and ObjectivesThe purpose of this study was to draw the attention toward the implications of COVID-19 and the related restrictions imposed worldwide especially in Pakistan. The primary objective was to highlight the levels of psychological distress, anxiety, family violence, suicidality, and well-being due to COVID-19 and the secondary objective was to associate it to social demographic factors.Materials and MethodsIt is designed as a cross-sectional study by employing an online questionnaire in the English language and obtaining responses using a snowball (...) sampling technique. We used three validated measures including Kessler Psychological Distress Scale, Generalized Anxiety Disorder index and World Health Organization Well-Being Index.ResultsA sample of 420 participants was recruited from across Pakistan, with most participants were females, students and belonging to Punjab. Nearly one-fourth of the participants scored above the minimum value set for moderate or high psychological distress. There was a higher prevalence of distress among females and resident of province Punjab. The majority of individuals reported that they were living with their family and more than half were neutral regarding their satisfaction with their living conditions. 40.5% believed that the lockdown has had a negative impact on their mental health. 31.4% have reported that they themselves have experienced abuse from a family member. 48.6% scored high on the GAD-7 scale and low wellbeing score was found among 80.2%. Students were found to be more vulnerable to mental illness and anxiety.ConclusionWith the lockdown restrictions, psychosocial distress has become prevalent in Pakistan. (shrink)

Many of the great thinkers and poets in Christianity and Islam led lives marked by personal and religious struggle. Indeed, suffering and struggle are part of the human condition and constant themes in philosophy, sociology and psychology. In this thought-provoking book, acclaimed scholar Mona Siddiqui ponders how humankind finds meaning in life during an age of uncertainty. Here, she explores the theme of human struggle through the writings of iconic figures such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Muhammad Ghazali, Rainer Maria (...) Rilke and Sayyid Qutb - people who searched for meaning in the face of adversity. Considering a wide range of thinkers and literary figures, her book explores how suffering and struggle force the faithful to stretch their imagination in order to bring about powerful and prophetic movements for change. The moral and aesthetic impulse of their writings will also stimulate inter-cultural and interdisciplinary conversations on the search for meaning in an age of uncertainty. (shrink)

Many of the great thinkers and poets in Christianity and Islam led lives marked by personal and religious struggle. Indeed, suffering and struggle are part of the human condition and constant themes in philosophy, sociology and psychology. In this thought-provoking book, acclaimed scholar Mona Siddiqui ponders how humankind finds meaning in life during an age of uncertainty. Here, she explores the theme of human struggle through the writings of iconic figures such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Muhammad Ghazali, Rainer Maria (...) Rilke and Sayyid Qutb - people who searched for meaning in the face of adversity. Considering a wide range of thinkers and literary figures, her book explores how suffering and struggle force the faithful to stretch their imagination in order to bring about powerful and prophetic movements for change. The moral and aesthetic impulse of their writings will also stimulate inter-cultural and interdisciplinary conversations on the search for meaning in an age of uncertainty. (shrink)

In a communication network with a source node, a multicast tree is defined as a tree rooted at the source node and all its leaves being recipients of the multicast originating at the source. The tree or bandwidth cost is normally measured by its utilization of tree links along with the quality of service measures such as delay constraint and end-to-end delay. However, if nodes are allowed to join or leave the multicast group at any time during the lifetime of (...) the multicast connection, then the problem is known as dynamic multicast routing problem. In this article, we combine a greedy approach with static multicast routing using Tabu Search to find a low-cost dynamic multicast tree with desirable QoS parameters. The proposed algorithm is then compared with several static multicast routing algorithms. The simulation results show that, on a large number of events, i.e., where nodes are leaving or joining, the proposed algorithm is able to find multicast trees of lower cost and more desirable QoS properties. (shrink)

These are strange and unprecedented times in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most frontline healthcare professionals have never witnessed anything like this before. As a result, staff may experience numerous and continuous traumatic events, which in many instances, will negatively affect their psychological well-being. Particularly, nurses face extraordinary challenges in response to shifting protocols, triage, shortages of resources, and the astonishing numbers of patients who require care in expedited time constraints. As most healthcare workers are passionate nursing professionals, frustration (...) and often a sense of powerlessness occur when they find themselves unable to provide needed care to their patients. The overwhelming number of deaths, patients isolated and dying alone, and the ever-present fear of being infected and then infecting colleagues, family, friends due to the lack of protective gear or known protocols takes its toll on emotional and psychological well-being. For nurses, the experience of this significant (hopefully once-in-a-lifetime) event can inflict on-going moral injury. Nurses affected by this trauma require education, coping tools, and therapy to help avoid or alleviate the adverse effects on their well-being. Institutions must provide these resources to tend to the well-being of their healthcare staff, during and beyond the pandemic. This article aims to investigate moral distress—considering it as a moral injury—and offer tools and recommendations to support healthcare nurses as they respond to this crisis and its aftermath. (shrink)

This paper investigates the development of corporate governance regulations in emerging economies, using the case of Bangladesh. In particular, the paper considers three issues: What type of corporate governance model may be suitable for an emerging economy such as Bangladesh? What type of model has Bangladesh adopted in reality? and What has prompted such adoption? By analysing the corporate environment and corporate governance regulations, the paper finds that, like many other developing nations, Bangladesh has also adopted the Anglo-American shareholder model (...) of corporate governance. Analysis of behaviours of principal actors in the Bangladeshi corporate governance scenario, using new institutionalism as a theoretical foundation, then reveals that such adoption may be prompted by exposure to legitimacy threats rather than efficiency reasons. (shrink)

Hermeneutics, in its phenomenological mode, has become one of the dominating issues in contemporary philosophical discours. Hans-Georg Gadamer, the leading exponent of phenomenological hermeneutics, develops his theory in his monumental work Truth and Method1, by regarding hermeneutics as an exploration of both the archaeology of human understanding and constitutive role of language in experience. In this paper, we have presented a brief exposition of Gadamer's views, giving an emphasis on how human understanding of objects inevitably mingles with its traditions or (...) prejudices. Following Gadamer, we also have offered a systematic account of the role of language upon our overall understanding and building of an impersonal criterion of the truth and meaning of experiences. And finally we have critically examined Habermas* critique of Gadamer's failure to see language as a camouflage of domination of stronger experiences and the fact that the history of understanding is systematically distorted by this domination. (shrink)

As a result of the devastating health effects of the COVID-19 outbreak, the lockdown has been considered a safety measure in many countries. In Pakistan, the first case of COVID-19 was reported in February 2020. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate people’s risk perception and protective behavior during the lockdown. Twenty-two (22) participants from eight big cities across Pakistan were interviewed. A six-step reflective thematic analysis was used for data analysis. The study focused on risk perception and (...) protective behaviors. Our main analytical goal was to understand how risk perception shapes human behavior in the context of lockdown, pandemic-related information flow, and corresponding meaning-making. The study revealed that people influenced by information and advice campaigns form a perception of risk that has shaped their protective behavior. They used familiar means of coping with distress, including the search for strength through religious belief practices and following the precautions recommended by health professionals through the media. (shrink)

Brain death certification can be a clinically and ethically challenging affair. Healthcare workers are expected to refer patients for brain death certification to identify potential organ donors, but family members may be ill-prepared for this turn of events. Already distraught families may not appreciate delays in brain death certification, but such delays are common because of the need to manage the patient’s altered physiological state to allow testing. Opportunities for donation are sometimes lost because of the unnecessary delay. With focus (...) on an opt-out organ donation law, we discuss causes of delays in brain death certification, and the ethical issues faced by clinicians in using tests to certify patients. To resolve the issues, we argue for the use of supplementary confirmatory tests as part of a more protocol-driven approach to brain death certification to avoid delays. Such tests should be regarded as part of the donation process funded by the state. (shrink)

What is the responsibility of the physician when a capacitated patient assigns decision-making authority to a surrogate who does not act in the patient’s best interest?

Machine generated contents note: 1. Spoken, intended and problematic divorce in Hanafi Fiqh; 2. Between person and property - slavery in Qudūrī's Mukhtasar; 3. Pig, purity and permission in Mālikī slaughter; 4. Islamic and other perspectives on evil; 5. The language of love in the Qur'ān; 6. Virtue and limits in the ethics of friendship 7. Drinking and drunkenness in Ibn Rushd.

ABSTRACTThe search for universal ethics among journalists has yet to receive general acceptance because previous attempts have sought a code of ethics to which all journalists around the globe could agree. Yet, starting with the universal principle of caring for others leads to seeing the feminist approach to ethics, namely the ethics of care and feminist discursive ethics, as a partial approach toward a universal ethic for journalists. Building on the work of Gilligan, Steiner, Buzzanell and others, we argue that (...) such an approach would have universal appeal. The implications of this for the training of journalists include getting journalists to recognizie the universality of caring for others and apply the 6 steps toward ethical public discourse. The migration crisis in Europe in 2015 provides an example of how this could lead to more compassion in the coverage of those who are most vulnerable in modern societies. (shrink)

This article examines the risk and return profiles of stock indices composed of companies meeting environmental, social and governance screening criteria [such as the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices ] and conventional composite indices of eight Asian countries from 2002 to 2014. The results indicate that there are no significant differences in the returns or risk-adjusted returns between the ESG indices and the composite indices within countries. The results do reveal that the market volatility of the ESG indices is higher than (...) the market volatility of the conventional indices. Market betas of DJSI and ESG equity indices are significantly lower than betas of the composite equity indices. The overall results indicate that the performance of ESG equity indices of many Asian countries is similar to the performance of conventional indices, suggesting that investors can pursue socially responsible investing objectives without a material difference in portfolio performance from conventional investing. (shrink)

BackgroundConsenting for retrospective medical records-based research (MR) and leftover tissue-based research (TR) continues to be controversial. Our objective was to survey Saudis attending outpatient clinics at a tertiary care hospital on their personal preference and perceptions of norm and current practice in relation to consenting for MR and TR.MethodsWe surveyed 528 Saudis attending clinics at a tertiary care hospital in Saudi Arabia to explore their preferences and perceptions of norm and current practice. The respondents selected one of 7 options from (...) each of 6 questionnaires.ResultsRespondents' mean (SD) age was 33 (11) years, 42% were males, 56% were patients, 84% had ≥ secondary school education, and 10% had previously volunteered for research. Respectively, 40% and 49% perceived that the norm is to conduct MR and TR without consent and 38% and 37% with general or proposal-specific consent; the rest objected to such research. There was significant difference in the distribution of choices according to health status (patients vs. companions) for MR (adjusted Kruskal-Wallis test P = 0.03) but not to age group, gender, education level, or previous participation in research (unadjusted P = 0.02 - 0.59). The distributions of perceptions of current practice and norm were similar (unadjusted Marginal Homogeneity test P = 0.44 for MR and P = 0.89 for TR), whereas the distributions of preferences and perceptions of norm were different (adjusted P = 0.09 for MR and P = 0.02 for TR). The distributions of perceptions of norm, preferences, and perceptions of current practice for MR were significantly different from those of TR (adjusted P < 0.009 for all).ConclusionsWe conclude that: 1) there is a considerable diversity among Saudi views regarding consenting for retrospective research which may be related to health status, 2) the distribution of perceptions of norm was similar to the distribution of perceptions of current practice but different from that of preferences, and 3) MR and TR are perceived differently in regard to consenting. (shrink)

Background The migration of health care professionals from developing to developed countries is a trend. This migration benefits the destination countries but is quite often devastating to healthca...

This paper will discuss why and how social network sites ought to be used in surrogate decision making (SDM), with focus on a context like Singapore in which substituted judgment is incorporated as part of best interest assessment for SDM, as guided by the Code of Practice for making decisions for those lacking mental capacity under the Mental Capacity Act (2008). Specifically, the paper will argue that the Code of Practice already supports an ethical obligation, as part of a patient-centred (...) care approach, to look for and appraise social network site (SNS) as a source of information for best interest decision making. As an important preliminary, the paper will draw on Berg’s arguments to support the use of SNS information as a resource for SDM. It will also supplement her account for how SNS information ought to be weighed against or considered alongside other evidence of patient preference or wishes, such as advance directives and anecdotal accounts by relatives. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the nature of rhetoric and rhetorical strategies that are implicit in the standalone sustainability reporting of the top 24 companies of the Fortune 500 Global. We adopt Bormann’s :396–407, 1972) SCT framework to study the rhetorical situation and how corporate sustainability reporting messages can be communicated to the audience. The SCT concepts in the sustainability reporting’s communication are subject to different types of legitimacy strategies that are used by corporations as a validity (...) and legitimacy claim in the reports. A content analysis has been conducted and structural coding schemes have been developed based on the literature. The schemes are applied to the SCT model which recognizes the symbolic convergent processes of fantasy among communicators in a Society. The study reveals that most of the sample companies communicate fantasy type and rhetorical vision in their corporate sustainability reporting. However, the disclosure or messages are different across locations and other taxonomies of the SCT framework. This study contributes to the current CSR literature about how symbolic or fantasy understandings can be interpreted by the users. It also discusses the persuasion styles that are adopted by the companies for communication purposes. This study is the theoretical extension of the SCT. Researchers may be interested in further investigating other online communication paths, such as human rights reports and director’s reports. (shrink)

Soft neutrosophic group and soft neutrosophic subgroup are generalized to soft neutrosophic bigroup and soft neutrosophic N-group respectively in this paper. Different kinds of soft neutrosophic bigroup and soft neutrosophic N-group are given. The structural properties and theorems have been discussed with a lot of examples to disclose many aspects of this beautiful man made structure.

Includes an introd. of 49 p. by S. G. Abbas.

Essays on linguistics in Malaysia; festschrift in honor of Asmah Haji Omar, a doctor in linguistics at Universiti Malaya.

_A groundbreaking examination of a crucial concept in Islamic thought and tradition from an author noted for her work on interfaith and intercultural dialogue_ Considering its prominent role in many faith traditions, surprisingly little has been written about hospitality within the context of religion, particularly Islam. In her new book, Mona Siddiqui, a well-known media commentator, makes the first major contribution to the understanding of hospitality both within Islam and beyond. She explores and compares teachings within the various Muslim (...) traditions over the centuries, while also drawing on materials as diverse as Islamic belles lettres, Christian reflections on almsgiving and charity, and Islamic and Western feminist writings on gender issues. Applying a more theological approach to the idea of mercy as a fundamental basis for human relationships, this book will appeal to a wide audience, particularly readers interested in Islam, ethics, and religious studies. (shrink)

In an exchange preserved in al-Subkī’s Ṭabaqāt al-shāfiʿiyya, the jurists al-Juwaynī and al-Shīrāzī debate equating prayer time to prayer direction in regard to the validity of prayer, and the adult virgin to the adult nonvirgin in regard to consent. While the dispute between the two scholars is on seemingly innocuous legal issues, it reveals that despite adherence to the same Shāfiʿī legal school, the two hold contrasting positions on the specifics of analogical reasoning. By examining the differences in their doctrines (...) on qiyās and their approaches to dialectics, this article demonstrates that al-Juwaynī is more willing to use qiyās, especially its weaker forms, and make nontextual legal arguments, while al-Shīrāzī is more wary in his use of qiyās, leading him to reject its weaker forms and nontextual arguments. By tracing the differences in their qiyās doctrines through their works on jadal and exploring the differing dialectics used in the two debates, this article examines the connection between qiyās and jadal, intra-school jadal, and the various approaches to qiyās in the fifth/eleventh century. (shrink)

Sufism has two main dimensions: vertical (God's pleasure) and horizontal (harmony with nature, society and local wisdom). In reality, many Sufis are considered less concerned about the balancing between vertical and horizontal dimensions. The research explores the concepts and practices of hybrid Sufism undertaken by Kyais (religious leaders) and their followers in improving quality of life. Ethnography was used for exploring the mindset and activities of Kyai and his followers. This study involved four Kyais in Java and Kalimantan, Indonesia. Research (...) data were obtained through participant observations, in-depth interviews and documentation. The data were analysed by Spadley's ethnographic steps as follows: (1) domain analysis, (2) taxonomy analysis, (3) componential analysis and (4) cultural-thematic analysis. The results showed that hybrid Sufism could improve quality of life. Hybrid Sufism can better appreciate and interpret local wisdom with an attitude of preserving nature and a positive understanding of worldly wealth, increasing the hard work ethos to achieve material-spiritual qualities. CONTRIBUTION: This article shows that hybrid Sufism encourages the life of Sufis in harmony between vertical and horizontal aspects. This understanding and lifestyle give rise to respect for others, being friendly to the environment and interpreting life and local wisdom. (shrink)

In this paper I offer a unified causal account of natural kinds. Using as a starting point the widely held view that natural kind terms or predicates are projectible, I argue that the ontological bases of their projectibility are the causal properties and relations associated with the natural kinds themselves. Natural kinds are not just concatenations of properties but ordered hierarchies of properties, whose instances are related to one another as causes and effects in recurrent causal processes. The resulting account (...) of natural kinds as clusters of core causal properties that give rise to clusters of derivative properties enables us to distinguish genuine natural kinds from non-natural kinds. For instance, it enables us to say why some of the purely conventional categories derived from the social domain do not correspond to natural kinds, though other social categories may. (shrink)

Nūr Muḥammad is one of the teachings in Sufism that studies the beginning of the creation of the universe. The Sufis discussed Nūr Muḥammad through God's tajallī (manifestation), and they believed that only Insan Kamil (Perfect Humans) possessed the perfection of His tajallī. This Sufi theory can be comprehended through the dhawqi approach. This research will deal with Nūr Muḥammad's theory of Sufism through the perspective of Tijaniyah Tarekat. The data for this study was obtained through library research utilizing a (...) documentary technique. The collected data will be analyzed using the descriptive analysis method. This study finds that the Tijaniyah Tarekat is a Sufism institution that bases its teachings and practices on the concept of Nūr Muḥammad in the form of ṣalawāt al-fātiḥ and ṣalawāt jawharah al-kamāl. This Tarekat's elucidation of Nūr Muḥammad is also built on and consistent with the explication of authoritative Sufis in Islam's intellectual and spiritual tradition. (shrink)

Could some social kinds be natural kinds? In this paper, I argue that there are three kinds of social kinds: 1) social kinds whose existence does not depend on human beings having any beliefs or other propositional attitudes towards them ; 2) social kinds whose existence depends in part on specific attitudes that human beings have towards them, though attitudes need not be manifested towards their particular instances ; 3) social kinds whose existence and that of their instances depend in (...) part on specific attitudes that human beings have towards them . Although all three kinds of social kinds are mind-dependent, this does not make them ontologically subjective or preclude them from being natural kinds. Rather, what prevents the third kind of social kinds from being natural kinds is that their properties are conventionally rather than causally linked. (shrink)

The notion of 'natural kinds' has been central to contemporary discussions of metaphysics and philosophy of science. Although explicitly articulated by nineteenth-century philosophers like Mill, Whewell and Venn, it has a much older history dating back to Plato and Aristotle. In recent years, essentialism has been the dominant account of natural kinds among philosophers, but the essentialist view has encountered resistance, especially among naturalist metaphysicians and philosophers of science. Informed by detailed examination of classification in the natural and social sciences, (...) this book argues against essentialism and for a naturalist account of natural kinds. By looking at case studies drawn from diverse scientific disciplines, from fluid mechanics to virology and polymer science to psychiatry, the author argues that natural kinds are nodes in causal networks. On the basis of this account, he maintains that there can be natural kinds in the social sciences as well as the natural sciences. (shrink)

There are tensions within formal education between imparting knowledge and the development of skills for handling that knowledge. In the primary school sector, the latter can also be squeezed out of the curriculum by a focus on basic skills such as literacy and numeracy. What happens when an explicit attempt is made to develop young children's reasoning—both in terms of their apparent cognitive abilities and their basic skills? This paper reports an independent evaluation of an in-class intervention called ‘Philosophy for (...) Children’, after just over one year of schooling. The intervention aims to help children become more willing and able to question, reason, construct arguments and collaborate with others. A group of 48 volunteer schools were randomised to receive P4C or act as a control for one year. This paper reports the CAT results for all pupils in years 4 and 5 initially, and the Key Stage 2 attainment in English and Maths for those starting in year 5. There was no school dropout. Individual attrition from a total of 3,159 pupils was around 11 percent—roughly equal between groups. There were small positive ‘effect’ sizes in favour of the P4C group in progress in reading and maths, and even smaller perhaps negligible improvements in CAT scores and writing. The results for the most disadvantaged pupils were larger for attainment, but not for CATs. Observations and interviews suggest that the intervention was generally enjoyable and thought to be beneficial for pupil confidence. Our conclusion is that, for those wishing to improve attainment outcomes in the short term, an emphasis on developing reasoning is promising, especially for the poorest students, but perhaps not the most effective way forward. However, for those who value reasoning for its own sake, this evaluation demonstrates that using curriculum time in this way does not damage attainment, and so suggests that something like P4C is an appropriate educational approach. (shrink)

As science developed many of the established facts tended to appear in a new light and were seen from an aspect that had earlier been ignored and as a rule new scientific theory originated from the clash of old theories and new facts. Not only that, science has reached at the highest peak of its development. Nevertheless, in this era of science and technology, it has not been fully harnessed to the welfare of humanity. The world today is in a (...) serious crisis and humanity is being constantly threatened or misuse of science. Science ‘therefore’ is not only a blessing but also presents an unprecedented threat to the very existence of the human race. This unhappy consequence is not because of science itself but because of the antagonistic nature of social relationships. It is very clear that, social reality is distinct from biological relating or individual cognitive reality representing as it does a phenomenological level created through social interaction and transcending thereby individual motives and actions. We cannot hope to understand the role of a social scientist properly unless we have some idea of the reality with which he is supposed to be involved either passionately or dispassionately. Philosophy and Progress, Vol#71-72; No#1-2; Jan-Dec 2022 P 29-43. (shrink)