In order to link fine-tuning in physics with spiritual influx, I propose that the highest degree in physics is where ‘ends’ are received in physics. By ends, I refer to what it is that determines the means or causes in physics, and what it is that manages or influences to basis parameters (masses and charge values) of the quantum fields. This is fine-tuning, in the sense that it occurs not just for the whole universe (in the Big Bang, for (...) example), but locally. That is, this fine-tuning is different at each time, and in point in space. Thus this influx can be specific to living organisms, and can occur at all the needed scales and levels in psychology and biology, namely every day and every micros-second of our lives. (shrink)

Historically, the great powers used small nations without a homeland, land and stable moral values as atool for their politics, and the Armenians were one of the few such nations. The Armenians who settled in the Caucasus under the patronageof christian Europe and tsar Russia have repeatedly committed genocide of Azerbaijanis over the past two centuries and facilitated the deportation of the local population. The Armenian atrocities that began in the 19th century and had no analogues in the 20th century (...) were finally brought to an end in the 44-day war and the Azerbaijani army successfully completed the Great Return. Initially, the Armenian occupants were expelled from Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions, and now the second stage has begun- a successful return to the ancestral lands of ancient Western Azerbaijan. (shrink)

Ācārya Umāsvāmī’s (circa 1st century CE) Tattvārthasūtra (spelled commonly as Tattvarthsutra or Tattvarthasutra), also known as Mokşaśāstra, is the most widely read Jaina Scripture. It expounds the Jaina Doctrine, the nature of the Reality, in form of aphorisms (sūtra), in Sanskrit. Brief and to-the-point, Tattvārthasūtra delineates beautifully the essentials of all objects-of-knowledge (jñeya). Sarvārthasiddhi by Ācārya Pūjyapāda (circa 5th century CE) is the first and foremost extant commentary on Tattvārthasūtra. Sarvārthasiddhi is an exposition of the reality – the true nature (...) of substances, soul and non-soul – the knowledge of which equips one to tread the path to liberation, as expounded in Tattvārthasūtra. There is beginningless intermingling of the soul (jīva) and the non-soul (ajīva) karmic matter. Our activities (yoga) are responsible for the influx (āsrava) of the karmic matter into the soul. Actuated by passions (kaşāya) the soul takes in particles of the karmic matter; this is bondage (bandha). Obstructing fresh inflow of the karmic matter into the soul – samvara – and its subsequent separation or falling off from the soul – nirjarā – are two important steps in attaining the infallible, utterly pristine, sense-independent and infinitely blissful state of the soul, called liberation (mokşa). (shrink)

The causal closure of the physical world is assumed everywhere in physics but has little empirical support within living organisms. For the spiritual to have effects in nature, and make a difference there, the laws of physical nature would have to be modified or extended. I propose that the renormalized parameters of quantum field theory (masses and charges) are available to be varied locally in order to achieve ends in nature. This is not adding extra forces to nature but rescaling (...) the forces which already exist. We separate metric time in 4 dimensions from process time as the order of actualization of potentialities. This is to allow iterative forward and reverse steps in metric time to influence intermediate variations in the vacuum permittivities to move charged bodies towards achieve specific targets at a later time. Then mental or spiritual influx could have effects in nature, and these should be measurable in biophysics experiments. With this proposal, we see after some centuries how ‘final causes’ could once again be seen active in nature. (shrink)

We lead off this issue of Childhood and Philosophy with a collection of testimonies, homages, and brief memoirs offered from around the world in response to the death of the founder of Philosophy for Children, Matthew Lipman on December 26, 2010, at the age of 87. To characterize Lipman as “founder” is completely accurate, but barely evokes the role he played in conceiving, giving birth to, and nurturing this curriculum cum pedagogy that became a movement, and which has taken root (...) in over 40 countries, from Iceland to Nigeria to Taiwan to Chile and everywhere in between. The movement itself is broader than the program, which has in fact experienced multiple transformations in multiple contexts over its half-century of life. In fact, as many of the testimonies below either state outright or imply, the movement is an emancipatory one and thus implicitly political, infused with all the long-suffering hope for our species inspired in us by the fact of natality, and by our own intuitive faith in the transformative power of reason—or as Lipman came to call it, “reasonableness.” For those seized by its educational possibilities, it presents a sudden influx of sunlight and fresh air into an institution long stultified by its own rigid habitus, and promises the reconstruction of schooling in the image of authentic democratic practice that recognizes and honors the unique capacities of children. As Philosophy in the Classroom—Lipman’s first and now classic statement of educational philosophy--puts it, the movement promises a re-orientation of the goal of education from information (or “learning”) to meaning, and inaugurates the dialogue with childhood and children that follows from that. Lipman was not just founder of this movement but creator, inventor, developer, convener, organizer, faithful soldier, ambassador, apologist, polemicist, propagandist, and, finally, undying optimist. (shrink)

Proces starzenia się społeczeństw stanowi istotne wyzwanie dla krajów Unii Europejskiej. W napływie emigrantów z młodszych regionów świata - głównie Azji i Afryki - dostrzega się sposobu na uzupełnienie malejących zasobów pracy, co prowadzi do wzrostu obaw w zakresie możliwości ich integracji w wymiarze międzypokoleniowym ze społecznościami przyjmującymi. Jednocześnie upatruje się korzyści z migracji seniorów oraz możliwości kształtowania gospodarek regionalnych i lokalnych tak by sprzyjały zaspokajaniu ich potrzeb. Celem opracowania jest przybliżenie koncepcji ageizmu (dyskryminacji ze względu na wiek) w formie (...) zwielokrotnionej, zarządzania różnorodnością, polityki kreatywności oraz związków wielokulturowości z konstruowaniem srebrnych gospodarek. Podsumowanie zawiera potencjalne kierunki dalszych badań nad wielokulturowymi aspektami srebrnej gospodarki. ** Process of ageing is important challenge for European Union countries. Influx of immigrants from younger regions of the world - mainly in Asia and Africa - is considered to be a way of supplementing dwindling labour resources, which leads to an increase in concern for their possible inclusion in the intergenerational dimension of the host communities. At the same time sees the benefits of migration and seniors opportunities to develop regional economies and encourage local authorities in order to meet their needs. Aim of this paper is to present concepts of multiple age discrimination, diversity management, creativity policy and relationships of multicultural society with construction of silver economies. Summary contains potential directions for further research on multicultural aspects of silver economy. (shrink)

Our understanding of what exactly needs protected against in order to safeguard a plausible construal of our ‘freedom of thought’ is changing. And this is because the recent influx of cognitive offloading and outsourcing—and the fast-evolving technologies that enable this—generate radical new possibilities for freedom-of-thought violating thought manipulation. This paper does three main things. First, I briefly overview how recent thinking in the philosophy of mind and cognitive science recognises—contrary to traditional Cartesian ‘internalist’ assumptions—ways in which our cognitive faculties, (...) and even our beliefs, can be materially realised by as well as stored non-biologically and extracranially. Second, and taking brain-computer interface technologies (BCIs) and the associated possibility of ‘extended’ beliefs as a reference point, I propose and defend a sufficient condition on freedom-of-thought violating (extended) thought manipulation. On the view proposed, the right not to have one’s thoughts or opinions manipulated is violated if one is (i) caused to acquire non-autonomous propositional attitudes (acquisition manipulation) or (ii) caused to have otherwise autonomous propositional attitudes non-autonomously eradicated (eradication manipulation). The implications of this view are then illustrated through four thought experiments, which map on to four distinct ways—what I call Type 1-Type 4 manipulation—in which, and with reference to the view defended, one’s freedom of thought is plausibly violated. (shrink)

This article was born of memories of minority groups' plights in the United Kingdom some decades ago and illustrates how opinions become entrenched in citizens minds mainly due to what they read in the media at the time. Today in the UK we still have much ethnic minority groups suffering plain -/- discrimination at work and in society at large. UK police spent 8 million pounds between years 2000 and 2008 doing footwork to relieve this injustice. Nothing came of it (...) apart from some minor attempts at improvement. Then in 2008 this guidance-seen in Appendix 1 of this article, was published by ACPO. We now have the ongoing minority discrimination, still more overt than covert and we have the new asylum seekers influx expected from Ukraine. This piece attempts to show how little improvement there has been over half a century and visibly over the past two decades. (shrink)

Kant’s pre-1770 philosophy responded to the mind-body problem by applying a theory of “physical influx”. His encounter with Swedenborg’s mysticism, however, left him disillusioned with any dualist solution to Descartes’ problem. One of the major goals of the Critical philosophy was to provide a completely new solution to the mind-body problem. Kant’s new solution is “perspectival” in the sense that all Critical theories are perspectival: it acknowledges a deep truth in both of the controversy’s extremes (i.e., what we might (...) nowadays call eliminative materialism and an absolutely ideal folk psychology), by viewing both as ways of considering the issue, rather than as the only correct approach. Once we take into account its perspectival character, a new way of understanding Kant’s philosophy of mind emerges. The mind is no longer separate from the body, but is a manifestation of it, viewed from another (specifically human, rational) perspective. Kant’s transcendental conditions of knowledge (spatio-temporal intuition, categorial conception, and principled schematization) do not portray the mind as somehow creating the physical world; rather, they imply the opposite, that knowledge of objects is necessarily structured by a set of unconscious assumptions about the physical world. Our pre-conscious (or pre-mental, in Descartes’ sense of “mental”) encounter with an assumed spatio-temporal, causal nexus is entirely physical. A reincarnated Kant’s solution to today’s mind-body problem would be: eliminative materialism is good science; but only the “explanatory idealist” can consistently be an eliminative materialist. Philosophically, multiple perspectives are necessary in order to understand anything we say or do. (shrink)

Since the 1980s, there have been many attempts to bring together Critical Theory of Frankfurtian strain and French theories generally referred to as poststructuralist. The present text seeks to readdress the problem of their tricky articulation by taking a look at some vicissitudes those two currents of thought underwent in Brazil. In addition to the risk – embedded in the Parisian passion for dissolution – of positivizing atrocious aspects of Brazilian society related to the country’s multi-secular informality and backwardness, what (...) is at stake is the adequate understanding of the meaning and relevance of dialectical criticism in a peripheral country, in other words, the capacity to weigh the influx and gravitation of foreign ideas and forms in a society of inorganic culture, the possibility, finally, of critically verifying the supposed universality of hegemonic theories and categories in light of a cultural experience amassed under a heterodox modernization. (shrink)

It cannot be overstated that in recent times the gravity and complexity of irregular maritime migration have triggered concerns and debates in the academic domains of International Relations and International Law. The article examines how states’ compliance with, and enforcement of, international law and legal norms would tackle the challenges of irregular migration in the Indian Ocean region. The legislative and policy challenges regarding irregular migration can be analyzed under two segments. First, there is a lack of comprehensive discussion about (...) the sending and the receiving states’ commitments (regarding irregular migrants) to international law and legal norms. Secondly, deficit of comparative analysis to show how the littoral states comply with international law norms on migration and refugee influx. Such analysis from multiple perspectives would be helpful to get insights and make policy recommendations about how effectively international law norms could be enforced through national legislation and policy framework. (shrink)

We live in a rapidly changing world and the pace of change is accelerating. Technological progress is one of the most dynamic areas that is transforming our society. The influx of new technologies boosts productivity. It increasingly replaces human labor in performing routine repetitive mental or physical tasks and frees humans for creative work.

The paper focuses itself on discussing the trend and practice of entrepreneurship education and training (EET) at tertiary level in the world. The author also supports the idea that entrepreneurship can be learnt through EET programs under certain circumstances. After examining the Vietnamese context for private entrepreneurs, including the government’s policy and the practice on startup since its independence in 1945, his analysis shows that Vietnam is a prospective market not only for domestic business people but also for foreign investors. (...) Then, with the massive influx of fresh graduates who are well prepared for job seeking, he recommends introducing EET programs formally to nurture entrepreneurial spirit among university students. It is supposed that the inclusion of EET programs at the tertiary level not only helps minimize the unemployment rate among new graduates on the present-day labor market but also contributes to generating jobs for others. (shrink)

Ālāpa Paddhati, composed by Ācārya Devasena (c. tenth century, Vikrama Samvat) is a Jaina text primarily on the topics of the standpoints (naya) and the secondary-standpoints (upanaya). It also delves into the substances (dravya), their qualities or attributes (guṇa), modes (paryāya), and nature (svabhāva). It is true that without appreciating the import and applicability of the individual standpoints (naya), one may get lost in the complex maze of the standpoints and cause great harm to one’s understanding, and even to one’s (...) mental balance. Ālāpa Paddhati is essential reading for every serious reader of the Dravyānuyoga that spreads the light of right (scriptural) knowledge by illuminating the Reality of substances – soul (jīva) and non-soul (ajīva), merit (puṇya) and demerit (pāpa), bondage (bandha) and liberation (mokṣa), including influx (āsrava), stoppage (saṃvara), and gradual dissociation (nirjarā). The book has a useful Appendix that explains the doctrines of non-absolutism (anekāntavāda) and conditional predication (syādvāda). This slim volume needs to be read over and over again to internalize the underlying concepts fully. (shrink)

Many similarities and correspondences are found in Jewish mysticism (Kabbalah) and Hindu mysticism (Vedanta-Advaita). In both traditions, the ultimate goal is to experience communion with a Divine Source. To reach this level of transcendence, each system speaks of an individualized soul with three characteristics that merge with a Godhead. Through deep meditative practices, the soul experiences a divine influx of the Infinite. The Hindu Upanishads and the Jewish Zohar speak of similar methodologies for achieving a mystical experience. Vedantin Adi (...) Shankara and Kabbalist Abraham Abulafia created esoteric systems for advancing mystical practices. Additionally, metaphysical beliefs on Being and Non-Being are comparable in both traditions. The cyclical nature of universes and transmigration of souls offer a unified theory of microcosm and macrocosm. Throughout the centuries, spiritual leaders contributed new knowledge to cosmology, esoteric interpretations, and daily practices for attaining higher consciousness. The contextual evolution of Vedanta and Kabbalah has been corroborated and finds support in modern scholarly discourse. Conclusions are offered on the benefits of mystical experiences including assimilation of wisdom, achieving transcendence, and living in a continual state of illumination. (shrink)

The very fast development of information technology which is characterized by an influx of industry 4.0 has changed the way of human and behavior in language. The grammar which is a phenomenon of interest to language is examined along with behavior change language in the internet world. A phenomenon in language online is the emergence of the use of visual language emoji in conducting conversations in social media. This paper aims to discuss the phenomenon of visual language emoji among (...) internet users in social media (WhatsApp. (shrink)

The article aims to investigate and analyze the social impact of industrialization on Badli. Badli is one of the largest industrial zones in Delhi which also bears large slums neighboring to the industries. The literature available on the area is also limited to news articles and government reports, thus further research on Badli is required. The social implications were examined through naturalistic observational research and unstructured interviews of 10 individuals from Badli. Using thematic analysis and secondary data analysis the data (...) was interpreted into common themes and key ideas. The analysis showed most Industries in Badli are unauthorized and have issues such as unemployment, child labor, hazardous working conditions, nominal wages, producing illegal substances and lack of healthcare management. People living in the neighboring slum areas suffer from issues such as poor health care facilities, below par educational infrastructure, high crime rates, harmful drainage and ventilation services, congested housing structures, economic disparity, and toxic family environment. Thus Industrialization has deeper implications on the society of Badli which can be attributed to the influx of migrants, industries and poor governance by the administrative authorities to control and manage the industrial process in Badli. It can be concluded that there is a huge correlation between social change and industrialization. Further studies are required to create socio-economic policies catering to the situation in Badli for a long-lasting sustainable effect on the area. (shrink)

Four simple postulates are presented, from which we derive a (3+1)‑dimensional structure, interpreted as ordinary space and time. We then derive further properties of space: isotropy and homogeneity; a rapid expansion within the first instant of time (i.e. inflation); and a continual and uniform expansionary pressure, due to a continual influx of (non-zero-point) energy that is uniformly distributed (i.e. dark energy). In addition, the time dimension is shown to have an "arrow". These results suggest that the four postulates may (...) be fundamental to the construction of the physical universe. (shrink)

Kant and Leibniz are interested in explaining how a number of individuals can come together and form a single unified composite substance. Leibniz does not have a convincing account of how this is possible. In his pre-critical writings and in his later metaphysics lectures, Kant is committed to the claim that the idea of a world is the idea of a real whole, and hence is the idea of a composite substance. This metaphysical idea is taken over into his ethical (...) writings and becomes the idea of a realm of ends. I explain why a realm of ends, should be thought of as both a unum per se and as a real whole. A realm of ends is a whole of individuals unified by laws they have given themselves, that is, it is a community of autonomous individuals. Only such a community can be thought of as a composite individual. Such a whole will be real rather than ideal because the source of the unity of the whole is intrinsic to the whole, for what gives unity to the realm are laws and the sources of the laws are the individual members of the whole. It will be a unum per se because both the laws and the individuals constituting the realm are incomplete without one another. If this reading is correct, this requires a fundamental reevaluation of Kant’s notion of autonomy. To be autonomous is not, primarily, to be understood in terms of ruling oneself, but instead must be thought of primarily in terms of being a generative source of laws for an ideal community. (shrink)

There are at least five ‘core’ notions of community found in Kant's works: 1. The scientific notion of interaction. This concept is introduced in the Third Analogy and developed in the Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science. 2. A metaphysical idea. The idea of a world of individuals (monads) in interaction. This idea was developed in Kant’s precritical period and can be found in his metaphysics lectures. 3. A moral ideal. The idea of a realm of ends. 4. A political ideal. (...) The idea of a juridical community (or community of communities) governed by juridical laws. 5. A theological ideal. What Kant calls ‘the kingdom of heaven’, and which can be thought of as a community of holy beings, or angels. In this paper I focus on the relationship between the first, second and fourth of these notions. My argument is that Kant’s notion of a juridical community governed by juridical laws is modelled on the metaphysical idea of the world. This metaphysical idea of a world is, in turn, modelled on the category of community introduced in the first Critique and developed in his logic lectures. (shrink)

One of the most pressing philosophical problems in early modern Europe concerned how the soul and body could form a unity, or, as many understood it, how these two substances could work together. It was widely believed that there were three (and only three) hypotheses regarding the union of soul and body: (1) physical influence, (2) occasionalism, and (3) pre-established harmony. However, in 1763, a fourth hypothesis was put forward by the French thinker André-Pierre Le Guay de Prémontval (1716–1764). Prémontval’s (...) hypothesis, given the grand name of “psychocracy” (i.e., the dominion or the rule of the soul), held that there was a real influence between soul and body, but that this was an immaterial kind of influence as opposed to the physical kind that had been entertained heretofore. Prémontval’s hypothesis is the focus of this paper. I shall begin by sketching out the details of Prémontval’s hypothesis (Section 1), then proceed to consider its claims to constitute a true fourth hypothesis distinct from the other three (Section 2), before closing by briefly considering two objections and the responses either that Prémontval himself made or that may be made on his behalf (Section 3). (shrink)

Ācārya Kundakunda’s (circa 1st century BCE) Rayaṇasāra makes it clear that the right-faith (samyagdarśana) is the beginning as well as the culmination of the path to liberation – mokṣa-mārga. The householder (śrāvaka) must first acquire the right-faith – the Quintessential Jewel (Rayaṇasāra) – to be able to establish his Self on to the path to liberation. As he acquires the right-faith he begins to appreciate the reality of the world and the worldly-existence. He then exerts to acquire the true knowledge (...) (jñāna) as expounded in the Doctrine (siddhānta), and adopts the laudable conduct (cāritra) by becoming a digambara-ascetic (nirgrantha muni). He ascends the spiritual-stages (guṇasthāna) and ultimately, through pure-meditation (śukla-dhyāna), attains the ineffable and eternal bliss appertaining to liberation (mokṣa). Ācārya Kundakunda, all through this Holy Scripture Rayaṇasāra, underscores the importance of the right-faith (samyagdarśana) for the householder (śrāvaka) as well as the ascetic (muni, śramaṇa). He asserts that in the (present) unfavourable fifth era the study – svādhyāya – of the Scripture, indeed, is meditation (dhyāna); it results in the subjugation of the five-senses (paṅcendriya) as well as of the passions (kaṣāya). (shrink)