Judaism is a religion and a way of life that combines beliefs as well as practical commandments and traditions, encompassing all spheres of life. Some of the numerous precepts emerge directly from the Torah (the Law of Moses). Others are commanded by Oral Law, rulings of illustrious Jewish legal scholars throughout the generations, and rabbinic responsa composed over hundreds of years and still being written today. Like other religions, Judaism has also developed unique symbols that have become virtually exclusive to (...) it, such as the Star of David and the seven-branched menorah. This book argues that Judaism impacts human geography in significant ways: it shapes the environment and space of its believers, thus creating a unique "Jewish geography.". (shrink)

ʻEdut be-Hosef -- Derekh ʻets ha-ḥayim -- Refuʼat ha-nefesh -- ha-Tapuaḥ.

kerekh 1. Ba-halakhah uve-agadah -- kerekh 2. [without special title].

A new view of the functional role of the left anterior cortex in language use is proposed. The experimental record indicates that most human linguistic abilities are not localized in this region. In particular, most of syntax (long thought to be there) is not located in Broca's area and its vicinity (operculum, insula, and subjacent white matter). This cerebral region, implicated in Broca's aphasia, does have a role in syntactic processing, but a highly specific one: It is the neural home (...) to receptive mechanisms involved in the computation of the relation between transformationally moved phrasal constituents and their extraction sites (in line with the Trace-Deletion Hypothesis). It is also involved in the construction of higher parts of the syntactic tree in speech production. By contrast, basic combinatorial capacities necessary for language processing – for example, structure-building operations, lexical insertion – are not supported by the neural tissue of this cerebral region, nor is lexical or combinatorial semantics. The dense body of empirical evidence supporting this restrictive view comes mainly from several angles on lesion studies of syntax in agrammatic Broca's aphasia. Five empirical arguments are presented: experiments in sentence comprehension, cross-linguistic considerations (where aphasia findings from several language types are pooled and scrutinized comparatively), grammaticality and plausibility judgments, real-time processing of complex sentences, and rehabilitation. Also discussed are recent results from functional neuroimaging and from structured observations on speech production of Broca's aphasics. Syntactic abilities are nonetheless distinct from other cognitive skills and are represented entirely and exclusively in the left cerebral hemisphere. Although more widespread in the left hemisphere than previously thought, they are clearly distinct from other human combinatorial and intellectual abilities. The neurological record (based on functional imaging, split-brain and right-hemisphere-damaged patients, as well as patients suffering from a breakdown of mathematical skills) indicates that language is a distinct, modularly organized neurological entity. Combinatorial aspects of the language faculty reside in the human left cerebral hemisphere, but only the transformational component (or algorithms that implement it in use) is located in and around Broca's area. Key Words: agrammatism; aphasia; Broca's area; cerebral localization; dyscalculia; functional neuroanatomy; grammatical transformation; modularity; neuroimaging; syntax; trace deletion. (shrink)

Beyond Scandal will give you the resources to talk to your kinds about: Sex, Gossip, Lying, Politics, Scandal, Friendship, Values, Leadership, Dirty Jokes.

In this paper I shall offer new definitions for what seem to be the most dominant terms in Epicurus’ theory of pleasures - “kinetic” and “katastematic”. While most of the scholarly literature treats these terms as entirely concerned with states of motion and states of stability, I shall argue that the distinction concerns whether pain is or is not removed by this or that pleasure. As the removal of pain is a necessary condition for the Epicurean goal of ataraxia and (...) aponia, “katastematic” pleasure, having to do with the removal of pain, is the necessary pleasure pertaining both to the process of removing pain and to its result, namely the absence of pain, while “kinetic” pleasure is an unnecessary pleasure having nothing to do with the removal of pain, e.g. it starts after pain has been removed. If my analysis and interpretation prove correct, the two conventional classifications - “kinetic-katastematic” and “necessary-unnecessary” - turn out to be referring to the same phenomenon and are aspects of one classification. Moreover, this new interpretation resolves some of the main problems arising from our testimonia concerning “kinetic” and “katastematic” pleasures. (shrink)

Determining Risk Factors and Demographic Patterns of Suicide in Tehran Suicide refers to the death of a person that is primarily achieved by self-harm. Today, it is considered one of the major public health issues. One of the important risk factors associated with attempted suicide is social relations. This study is a descriptive and analytical study that aims to identify the suicide rate, the risk factors in suicide, and the methods of suicide. The findings show that there is a significant (...) relationship between suicide and demographic variables that include age, sex, educational level, adherence to religion, and occupation. This research also shows the psychological factors that lead to suicide include depression, addiction, lack of social activities, and mental disorders caused by chronic disease. (shrink)

This short paper is to provide answer to the question what is there outside the Universe? If the Universe is expending, what does it expend into? An answer was provided, the universe is expanding into its complementary universe. If that is so, then what the complementary universe is? A new perception is provided that matter exist as a logical state. What is the logical state creating matter? This question is being answered by the relationship between the universe and its complementary (...) universe satisfying the equilibrium equation that total matter of both universes, the inner universe and the complementary universe, collapse into zero, i.e. no matter. Furthermore, the existence of matter out of void is a logical state resulted from the void existence. (shrink)

Abstrak: Etika keduniawian Hannah Arendt muncul dari cara khasnya memikirkan dunia dan tindakan-tindakan manusia di dalamnya. Bagi Arendt, lewat berpikir, manusia mengungkapkan opini dan perhatiannya pada dunianya, apa yang terjadi di dunia. Lewat berpikir, manusia menunjukkan sebentuk tanggung jawabnya terhadap dunia dimana ia terlempar. Dengan menilai sebuah tindakan politik, manusia disetir oleh nilai-nilai moral yang berasal dari dunia itu sendiri. Penilaian yang ia berikan, pada gilirannya ada di bawah putusan orang-orang lain yang mengkonfrontasinya. Artinya, saat kita berpikir dan menilai, kita (...) mesti sadar akan makna tindakan politis bagi dunia pada umumnya, dan kita juga mesti menyadari apa yang akan dikatakan orang lain tentangnya. Kata-kata Kunci: Etika, keduniawian, berpikir, menilai, tanggungjawab. Abstract: This paper aims at reconstructing Arendt’s ethics of worldliness from her specific way of thinking about the world and how to judge an action takes place in it. For Arendt, in thinking, we express our concern and opinion about the world and what is going on in it. It is one way of showing our responsibility for the world into which we are thrown. In judging a political action we are directed by ethical constraints to come from the world itself and the verdict of spectators. That means, when we judge we should be aware of the things that an action could bring to the public realm and what others might say about it. Keywords: Ethics, worldliness, thinking, judging, responsibility. (shrink)

1. Halakhah. Maḥshavah. Divre rishonim -- 2. Mishnat ha-Rambam. Yehude Teman -- 3. Meḳorot. Zuṭot.

On life and philosophy of Nāgārjuna, 2nd century Buddhist philosopher; includes a portion on Buddhism.

Treatise, with Hindi explanation, on the fundamentals of the Nyaya school in Hindu philosophy.

The Upper Palaeolithic Revolution, sometimes called ‘the Creative Explosion’, is seen as the period when the forefathers of modern forager societies emerged. Similarly to the Industrial and Neolithic Revolutions, it represents a short time span when numerous inventions appeared and cultural changes occurred. The inventions were in the domain of technology, that is, shaping of new stone tool forms, longdistance exchange of raw materials, the use of bone, antler and ivory as well as rare minerals for the production of domestic (...) and ritual objects. Spatial analysis of ‘living floors’ indicates the presence of a kitchen area, sleeping grounds, storage facilities (in certain regions) and a discard zone. We can also detect a certain increase in social hierarchy and the presence of shamans. Body decorations indicate the appearance of personal individuality. Several hypotheses were offered as an explanation for the initiation of all these cultural changes often grouped under the term ‘modern behaviour’. It stands to reason that attributing the new successful technologies observed in the Eurasian Upper Palaeolithic to intrinsic social processes and economic innovations by local Middle Palaeolithic populations would need a better archaeological demonstration than that available today. For the time being, the emergence of Modern humans in sub-Saharan Africa, their socio-economic dynamism that caused their expansion through the Nile Valley into the Near East, and their migration along the ‘southern route’ of Asia as far as Australia, is the most plausible scenario though it still leaves much to be desired from future archaeological research. (shrink)

The conclusion that language is not really innate or modular is based on several fallacies. I show that the target article confuses communicative skills with linguistic abilities, and that its discussion of brain/language relations is replete with factual errors. I also criticize its attempt to contrast biological and linguistic principles. Finally, I argue that no case is made for the “alternative” approach proposed here.

I begin with a characterization of neurolinguistic theories, trying to pinpoint some general properties that an account of brain/language relations should have. I then address specific criticisms made in the commentaries regarding the syntactic theory assumed in the target article, properties of the Trace Deletion Hypothesis (TDH) and the Tree-Pruning Hyothesis (TPH), other experimental results from aphasia, and findings from functional neuroimaging. Despite the criticism, the picture of the limited role of Broca's area remains unchanged.

Speeches and persuasion dominate Plato’s Crito. This paper, paying particular attention to the final passage in the dialogue, shows that the focus on speeches, persuasion and allusions to many other elements of rhetoric is an integral part of Plato’s severe criticism of democracy, one of the main points of the Crito. Speeches allow members of a democracy – represented in our dialogue by Crito – firstly to break the law for self-interested reasons while considering themselves still to be law-abiding citizens, (...) and secondly to feel that they are in a tolerant society preferring logos/persuasive speech above bia/compulsion. Socrates counters Crito’s speeches with speeches of his own, not only to defeat him at his own game, but also to make him aware how dangerous the game is. Real knowledge is preferable to speeches, but a democracy without speeches and rhetoric is doomed. (shrink)

In this paper I offer a close analysis of the first scene in Plato’s Crito. Understanding a Platonic dialogue as a philosophical drama turns apparent scene-setting into an integral and essential part of the philosophical discussion. The two apparently innocent questions Socrates asks at the beginning of the Crito anticipate Crito’s two problems, namely how he regards his friendship with Socrates as opposed to his complicated relations with the polis and its sovereignty. These two questions are an integral part of (...) the philosophical discussion presented throughout the dialogue. (shrink)

A basic function of cognition is to detect regularities in sensory input to facilitate the prediction and recognition of future events. It has been proposed that these implicit expectations arise from an internal predictive coding model, based on knowledge acquired through processes such as statistical learning, but it is unclear how different types of statistical information affect listeners’ memory for auditory stimuli. We used a combination of behavioral and computational methods to investigate memory for non-linguistic auditory sequences. Participants repeatedly heard (...) tone sequences varying systematically in their information-theoretic properties. Expectedness ratings of tones were collected during three listening sessions, and a recognition memory test was given after each session. Information-theoretic measures of sequential predictability significantly influenced listeners’ expectedness ratings, and variations in these properties had a significant impact on memory performance. Predictable sequences yielded increasingly better memory performance with increasing exposure. Computational simulations using a probabilistic model of auditory expectation suggest that listeners dynamically formed a new, and increasingly accurate, implicit cognitive model of the information-theoretic structure of the sequences throughout the experimental session. (shrink)

1. Śiḥot, ʻetsot, sipurim, ṿe-hadrakhot maʻaśiyot li-veniyat ha-ḳesher ben bene ha-zug ... -- 2. Be-parashat ha-shavuʻa.

Bogdanov is a major rival to the philosophical orthodoxy of Plekhanov and Lenin. We explicate the foundational notions of his philosophy—praxis and experience—and trace his revisionism to Kant, Fichte, Mach, and Spencer. We show that Bogdanov's approach represents a predominantly pragmatic reading of Marx, influenced by the empiricism of Mach and Spencer as well as by Kantian apriorism. Bogdanov's version of Unified Science—Tektology—is considered against his philosophical background. The concept of praxis is at the center of the controversy between Marxist (...) orthodoxy and revisionism. We analyze the connection between Bogdanov's philosophy of praxis, and the constructivism of the young Marx. Consequently, we see how Bogdanov's quest for infinite creativity is conceptually connected with the Fichtean–Marxian quest for infinite growth. Furthermore, we consider the issue of technological growth in a framework of the contemporary limits to growth debate. (shrink)

Ι analyse a limited section in the conversation between Socrates and Gorgias in Plato’s Gorgias (449e1-451d8). The significance of this section has been overlooked in the scholarly literature; I shall argue that the passage draws attention to Gorgias’ confused treatment of λόγοι as both the instrumentum and the materia of rhetoric. Whether Gorgias is aware of the distinction or not, he is driven by Socrates de facto to look for a materia of rhetoric that is not to do with λόγοι, (...) since Socrates increasingly treats λόγοι effectively as the instrumentum of rhetoric. Socrates manipulates Gorgias through a combination of content and form, using λόγοι and λόγος in a variety of cases with a number of prepositions, from περὶ λόγους, to διὰ λόγων, διὰ λόγου, ἐν λόγοις, and eventually λόγῳ, to distance speaking and speeches themselves from the materia of rhetoric. (shrink)