Ethical conflicts are arising as a result of the growing complexity of clinical care, coupled with technological advances. Most studies that have developed instruments for measuring ethical conflict base their measures on the variables ‘frequency’ and ‘degree of conflict’. In our view, however, these variables are insufficient for explaining the root of ethical conflicts. Consequently, the present study formulates a conceptual model that also includes the variable ‘exposure to conflict’, as well as considering six ‘types of ethical conflict’. An instrument (...) was then designed to measure the ethical conflicts experienced by nurses who work with critical care patients. The paper describes the development process and validation of this instrument, the Ethical Conflict in Nursing Questionnaire Critical Care Version (ECNQ-CCV). (shrink)

Although there are fundamental differences between Ahl al-Sunnah and Shī‘a on the issue of Mahdī, one of the controversial issues among Islamic sects, Shī‘a has attached much greater importance to the issue. In this study, after the information about Mahdiship in the primary sources of Islam is conveyed, the opinions of the Ahl al-Sunnah and Shī‘a will be given and an evaluation will be made about the evidence and opinions put forward by the two sects. The Shiites, who formed the (...) principles of belief based on the theory of imamate, explained the issue of Mahdism in the axis of imamate and gave it a religious dimension, but the Shi‘ī sects disagreed on the subject of Mahdī. Shi‘ī sources tried to show that the claim of Mahdiship is an important issue, which has preoccupied Muslims, by dating the claim of Mahdiship back to Ali ibn Abi Talib's son, Muhammad ibn Hanafiyah. In a very early period, it was claimed that Muhammad ibn Hanafiyya did not die but was still living on a mountain called Razva in Madinah, and he was the anticipated (muntaẓar) Mahdī. Most of the Zaydiyya did not consider the issue of Mahdiship an important fundamental basis of belief. Ismailiyya maintain that Muhammad ibn Ismail did not die and will come and amend the world one day. Imāmiyya believe that Hasan, whom they accept as the last imam, will reappear as the Mahdī in the latest days of the world, and in line with this belief, they have made great efforts to find proof from the Qur’ānic verses and hadiths and interpreted them. In this way, they attached more importance to the understanding of Mahdiship on the axis of imamate than the other Shi‘ī sects. According to Imāmiyya, since the world cannot be left without a prophet, an open, or a secret imam, Muhammad b. Hasan will remain hidden as long as he wants and appear as the Mahdī near the Doomsday. Based on the clear statement of the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) that twelve caliphs would come after him, the Imāmiyya restricted the number of Imams from Ahl al-Bayt to twelve and claimed that the twelfth imam would come again as Mahdī. Although the Imāmiyya believe that the Mahdī will be from the Ahl al-Bayt, just like the other imams, they have not been able to provide valid evidence for the belief that the twelfth imam will be hidden and appear near Judgment Day. Although Imāmiya tried/have been trying to prove that it is possible for a person to live for centuries (more than a thousand years), which is called al-Ghaybat al-Kubrā by Imamiyya, it cannot be said that they have succeeded in doing so. (shrink)

Software systems play an ever more important role in our lives and software engineers and their companies find themselves in a position where they are held responsible for ethical issues that may arise. In this paper, we try to disentangle ethical considerations that can be performed at the level of the software engineer from those that belong in the wider domain of business ethics. The handling of ethical problems that fall into the responsibility of the engineer has traditionally been addressed (...) by the publication of Codes of Ethics and Conduct. We argue that these Codes are barely able to provide normative orientation in software development. The main contribution of this paper is, thus, to analyze the normative features of Codes of Ethics in software engineering and to explicate how their value-based approach might prevent their usefulness from a normative perspective. Codes of Conduct cannot replace ethical deliberation because they do not and cannot offer guidance because of their underdetermined nature. This lack of orientation, we argue, triggers reactive behavior such as “cherry-picking,” “risk of indifference,” “ex-post orientation,” and the “desire to rely on gut feeling.” In the light of this, we propose to implement ethical deliberation within software development teams as a way out. (shrink)

This research project investigated manifestations of critical thinking in pupils 10 to 12 years of age during their group discussions held in the context of Philosophy for Children Adapted to Mathematics. The objective of the research project was to examine, through the pupils' discussions, the development of dialogical critical thinking processes. The research was conducted during an entire school year. The research method was based on the Grounded Theory approach; the material used consisted of transcripts of verbal exchanges among (...) the pupils. Analysis of the transcripts revealed that: critical thinking appears to the extent that a 'dia-logue' is established among pupils; on the cognitive level, dialogical critical thinking is comprised of four thinking modes: logical, creative, responsible and meta-cognitive; and on the epistemological level, dialogical critical thinking is only manifested in a context where egocentricity of perspective and relativism of beliefs are transcended. (shrink)

Thinking about abnormalization, the author views abnormalizing as one of the means of entering the space where everything is born, and evaluates the place of this means in modern society. Over the course of human history, society established norms and taboos of all kinds, and the system of norms and taboosdetermined the society itself. This is especially important in modern society, the society where, besides self-reproduction, development is also one of the main objectives, which presupposes constant creation of new (...) norms. How are norms created? What are the requirements for this? What kind of people can create new norms? What are the threats of this process? The author answers these questions and many others in the outlines of thought. While dwelling upon abnormalization, the author involuntarily touched the borders, the limits of the human world, took a look beyond the horizon of something totally different. (shrink)

The aim of the article is to understand how common good dynamics shape the rural, mainly indigenous municipality of Copanatoyac in Guerrero, Mexico. Based on the data collected in 2022 by the ipbc (Instituto Promotor del Bien Común) research team, we use the common good approach to development to offer a narrative of the municipality’s trends on governance, justice, stability, collective agency, and humanity. After a brief introduction on how a common good approach can help interpret key social processes (...) and development trends, the first part concentrates on what the data shows about the five main triggers of common good dynamics. The second part investigates how Basic Common Goods (bcg) are created, distributed, and governed in the municipality. Our main results are (a) that the modern state and its institutions are not only failing to promote local common good dynamics but are in fact a hindrance to the common good; and (b) that while collective agency to address and solve common problems is high, it reaches its limit in two key domains: the ability to earn enough to live well, and systemic humiliation and injustice. (shrink)

The debate about the differing philosophies of human-nature relationship is ongoing. Several studies discuss the need to develop and adopt a new environmental paradigm to replace the neoclassical economic paradigm predominant in Western societies. This issue has been discussed mainly at a societal level. Society or societies are, however, entities that consist of smaller particles. If a phenomenon is supposed to exist in an entity, signs of the phenomenon should also be found in its particles, business enterprises among others. This (...) paper examines a shift of a managerial paradigm in a business organization, since not only the actions of individuals and governments but also those of business enterprises account for the preservation of the natural environment. It studies empirically how a managerial paradigm can shift from “traditional managerial thinking” to ”environment-related management.” Two frameworks will be developed for this purpose. (shrink)

Artificial intelligence systems have been widely applied to various contexts, including high-stake decision processes in healthcare, banking, and judicial systems. Some developed AI models fail to offer a fair output for specific minority groups, sparking comprehensive discussions about AI fairness. We argue that the development of AI systems is marked by a central paradox: the less participation one stakeholder has within the AI system’s life cycle, the more influence they have over the way the system will function. This means (...) that the impact on the fairness of the system is in the hands of those who are less impacted by it. However, most of the existing works ignore how different aspects of AI fairness are dynamically and adaptively affected by different stages of AI system development. To this end, we present a use case to discuss fairness in the development of corporate wellness programs using smart wearables and AI algorithms to analyze data. The four key stakeholders throughout this type of AI system development process are presented. These stakeholders are called service designer, algorithm designer, system deployer, and end-user. We identify three core aspects of AI fairness, namely, contextual fairness, model fairness, and device fairness. We propose a relative contribution of the four stakeholders to the three aspects of fairness. Furthermore, we propose the boundaries and interactions between the four roles, from which we make our conclusion about the possible unfairness in such an AI developing process. (shrink)

The authors of this article are previous or current members of the Clinical Ethics Consultation Affairs (CECA) Committee, a standing committee of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH). The committee is composed of seasoned healthcare ethics consultants (HCECs), and it is charged with developing and disseminating education materials for HCECs and ethics committees. The purpose of this article is to describe the educational research and development processes behind our teaching materials, which culminated in a case studies book (...) called A Case-Based Study Guide for Addressing Patient-Centered Ethical Issues in Health Care (hereafter, the Study Guide). In this article, we also enumerate how the Study Guide could be used in teaching and learning, and we identify areas that are ripe for future work. (shrink)

The concept of Ahl as-Sunnah, which is used to describe the vast majority of Muslims, has been interpreted in different ways by different Islamic segments. The difference in the meanings attributed to the word "sunnah" in the concept composition can be seen as the reason for this diversity. This concept, which points to an important situation such as the distinction between right and wrong, has been adopted by Islamic groups and can be used from time to time to exclude those (...) who think differently from themselves. Prof. Dr. Muammer Esen, in his work titled "The Formation and Development Process of the Concept of Ahl as-Sunnah", criticized this exclusionary meaning of the concept, along with he included how this concept emerged in the historical process. The work that we will examine in this article has an important place in terms of shedding light on the historical background and different definitions of the concept of Ahl as-Sunnah. (shrink)

Lyme disease is one of the most controversial illnesses in the history of medicine. In 2006 the Connecticut Attorney General launched an antitrust investigation into the Lyme guidelines development process of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). In a recent settlement with IDSA, the Attorney General noted important commercial conflicts of interest and suppression of scientific evidence that had tainted the guidelines process. This paper explores two broad ethical themes that influenced the IDSA investigation. The first (...) is the growing problem of conflicts of interest among guidelines developers, and the second is the increasing centralisation of medical decisions by insurance companies, which use treatment guidelines as a means of controlling the practices of individual doctors and denying treatment for patients. The implications of the first-ever antitrust investigation of medical guidelines and the proposed model to remediate the tainted IDSA guidelines process are also discussed. (shrink)

The development of green products requires that marketers involve a broad set of intemal and external stakeholders in the new product development process. These stakeholders have the ability to cooperate, threaten and indirectly influence the firm activities. Their involvement is important, for these stakeholders often have essential information and expertise outside the organisation's core domain. This paper examines marketers' perception of stakeholders potential to use these abilities and what specific strategies or approaches can be used to involve (...) them in the green new product development process. (shrink)

After twenty-five years sustainable development is not a reality. Policies and practices focus on the short-term and economists regard sustainable development as extraneous to their core responsibilities. Science, economics and self- interest have not proven a sufficient ground for sustainable development. Ethics calling for moral reasoning and courageous action, spirit offering transcendence, vision and sustenance, and value asking what is development for are needed. United Nations negotiations have shaped, are shaping, and will continue to shape the (...) meaning and practice of sustainable development. A global citizens‘ movement to build the political will for change is needed. To catalyze sustainable development ethics, religion and spirituality must operate out of a historical context and narrative of a ―Great Transition. ‖ Ethics must enter at the ground level in determining how science, technology, and economics are to be conceived. Religion and spirit must begin with respect for the order of existence. A particular ―Ethics and Spirituality Initiative for Sustainable Development‖ is building a coalition of religious, spiritual and secular values based-organizations to bring ethics and spirituality into the sustainable development process. (shrink)

As organization development (OD) increasingly is being viewed globally as the major approach to organization change, a parallel interest in and need for attention to ethical issues has emerged in the field. In spite of the importance of ethical issues in OD, little attention has been focused on the ethical dilemmas that arise in OD practice, especially specific ethical dilemmas that may appear at each stage of the process. In addition, there is little discussion in the literature about (...) how to deal effectively with ethical dilemmas in OD and how to make an ethical decision by utilizing appropriate tools. Thus, in this paper, potential ethical dilemmas that may occur in each stage of the OD process are identified and presented. Recommendations and implications are discussed. (shrink)

This article addresses the new theories and concepts of design management: design thinking, user experience (UX) and service design. They consider people's experiences and focus on the characteristics of each one of them. From industrial design, the scope and relationships between these definitions - now better visible - were analyzed, which always belonged to the design field of the discipline, from which an attempt was made to identify how they influence innovation, design and development of new products. To account (...) for the evolution that the design field has had, the most significant processes are contrasted to visualize the differences that make this change fundamental. Finally, it is concluded on its strategic relevance for the application in public and private organizations. Also taking into account how these theories are methodologically incorporated into the set of activities inherent to industrial design. (shrink)

This paper aims to reflect on ethical considerations for the well-being of researchers involved in the development of virtual reality (VR) scenarios for parents who emotionally maltreat their children. Ethical considerations, particularly potential emotional strain, arose throughout the VR scenario development, including topic selection and content creation. However, despite the significance of these issues, existing literature addressing ethical challenges in researching sensitive topics from the researcher’s perspective has focused solely on data collection or analysis, overlooking the well-being of (...) researchers involved in the development phase. To uphold high ethical standards, research should recognize and safeguard the well-being and safety of researchers throughout the study. In this methodological paper, the focus is on how an interdisciplinary team of researchers from technical and human sciences addressed the above concerns in biweekly reflective discussions. In these meetings, the team members shared their experiences and emotional reactions related to the development of VR scenarios simulating parents who were emotionally abusive toward their child. These reflective discussions created a secure environment for the researchers to process complex ethical issues and find emotional support, which is crucial for protecting their mental well-being from the outset of the project. The discussions contributed to strengthening the team’s overall well-being. In conclusion, this paper highlights the necessity of regular reflective meetings during the development phase to enhance the ethical quality of data gathering and reporting. In addition, engaging in team-based reflection improves researcher well-being and fosters ethical awareness. Reflective discussions have the potential to prevent vicarious traumatization by strengthening resilience when exposed to sensitive topics and addressing complex societal challenges. (shrink)

The history of drug/vaccine development has included major advances guided primarily by risk/benefit analyses concerning the innovative agent, not by evidence-based clinical trials (Phase I–IV). Because the approval for new drugs is hindered under the present process, the system requires restructuring. The Phase I/II study period should be more flexible, using the “environment of knowledge” about the new agent, plus risk/benefit assessments. Phase III, as presently constructed, does not add new adverse events data, it provides a narrower profile (...) of drug efficacy than properly done Phase II studies, and placebo-controlled trials continue to raise unresolved ethical and social issues. Phase III studies should be abandoned for most drugs, and substituted with properly powered Phase II doseranging studies plus careful post-marketing surveillance. Phase III should be a penalty for poor drug development, not a regulatory requirement. (shrink)

At the end of a turbulent year, this special issue is a timely reorientation to the lives and cosmologies that continue at the local level, far from international politics and diplomacy but no less...

This study investigates how Human Factors is applied when designing and developing Immersive Visual Technologies, including Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality, and Virtual Reality. We interviewed fourteen people working at different organizations, that develop IVT applications in the Nordic region. We used thematic analysis to derive themes from the interviews. The results showed an insufficient knowledge and application of HF in IVT development, due to the lack of awareness of both scope and significance of HF, resource allocation strategy, market inertia, (...) stakeholder's involvement, standardization of HF application and IVT uses, and technology maturity. This situation could be improved by allocating experts, adjusting organizational strategy to balance resource allocation, training developers and user organizations to raise awareness and to encourage co-creative design and knowledge sharing, create a sense of ownership amongst stakeholders, and ensure the usefulness of the technology to the user's work. (shrink)

Cover Photograph: Resolving developmental genetics in the fourth dimension: an illustration (by Kwang‐Hyun Cho himself) of the principle of dynamic network motifs in Drosophila development. Hitherto largely considered in terms of time‐invariant networks, drosophila development is viewed in the article by Man‐Sun Kim, Jeong‐Rae Kim, and Kwang‐Hyun Cho as the result of networks of gene interactions that change during the course of development. Using this paradigm, pivotal developmental events can be correlated with particular changes from one constellation (...) of gene interactions to a different one, and the method allows the identification of certain network motifs that are not identifiable using static approaches. Features article: “Dynamic network rewiring determines temporal regulatory functions in the Drosophila melanogaster development processes”, see pages 505 – 513. (shrink)

This Handbook in the Islamic Philosophy of Science addresses several problems and issues of current nature in various fields where the philosophy of science becomes an important field of extensive investigation. The topics so included in such a wide-ranging field of study cover economics and society besides subtle areas of scientific studies. The totality of these disciplines is referred to as the socio-scientific field. The centerpiece of the socio-scientific field of study comprising the qur’anic approach to study such issues in (...) their generalized and specific studies is the Tawhidi law in the framework of the derived methodology of the Tawhidi IIE(θ(ε))-model. Diverse topics of the specific field of sustainability, sustainable development, the centricity of the qur’anic moral prerogative, and the formulation of the generalized theory of socio-scientific nature are the focus of study in this chapter. Certain areas of critical originality that have not been addressed in the literature of Islamic philosophy of science and in particular in the field of Islamic political economy are addressed using the universal and unique methodology of the Tawhidi IIE(θ(ε))-model. (shrink)

This is a commentary for a special issue on predictive processing and rational constructivist models of development. Mainly I use the opportunity to ask a bunch of questions about what these theoretical frameworks show us (and what they do not) and mostly where the open questions still are. To get meta for a moment, I thought these questions were the best way to maximize the value of my commentary: They have the highest probability of leading to the most uncertainty (...) reduction for our field in the long term. Please read in that spirit. (shrink)

A possible explanation for policy implementation failure is that the views of the policy’s target groups are insufficiently taken into account during policy development. It has been argued that involving these groups in an interactive process of policy development could improve this. We analysed a project in which several target populations participated in workshops aimed to optimise the utilisation of an expensive novel drug (interferon beta) for patients with Multiple Sclerosis. All participants seemed to agree on the (...) appropriateness of establishing a central registry of Multiple Sclerosis patients and developing guidelines. Nevertheless, these policy measures were not implemented. Possible explanations include (1) the subject no longer had high priority when the costs appeared lower than expected, (2) the organisers had paid insufficient attention to the perceived problems of parties involved, and (3) changes within the socio-political context. The workshops in which representatives of the policy’s target populations participated did not provide enough interactivity to prevent policy implementation failure. (shrink)

This qualitative research focuses on Dong's Wind and Rain Bridges in Chengyang Bazhai in Liuzhou, China. This research explores the academic issue of public space and meaning change in the process of minority development, through the Dong's Wind and Rain Bridges phenomenon. The findings of this research are that public space in all societies in the world is a fusion of space production and meaning and constructs identity and social relations. It has changed in the context of the (...) times and has produced new functions for different groups of people, constantly generating new meanings superimposed on the old meanings. As an important public space in the community, Dong's Wind and Rain Bridges include the physical space production of the surrounding area and the social and mental space production of the Dong ethnic group, emphasizing the close relationship between "space production" and "ethnic identity". In the process of minority development in China, the use of the wind and rain bridge's public space has changed socially, responding to the new needs of different groups. It, therefore, has been constantly undergoing "meaning change". (shrink)

Music presents itself as a process, a continuation, following through. Musical works and music experience is perceived as development, succession, dialogical reaching out and harmonizing. Not one process but many. Among those various processes that make music the author focuses on a specific process of human development, which occurs during listening as much as during performing music. This is a process of growing and self-realization. In the course of the paper following the processual character (...) of music, the author turns to Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Mikel Dufrenne in the phenomenological tradition, to Jerrold Levinson and his understanding of music through a listening moment to moment process and also to Theodor Adorno and his way of explaining music as a process of dialectical development. (shrink)

Predictive processing (PP) has been repeatedly presented as a unificatory account of perception, action, and cognition. In this paper, we argue that this is premature: As a unifying theory, PP fails to deliver general, simple, homogeneous, and systematic explanations. By examining its current trajectory of development, we conclude that PP remains only loosely connected both to its computational framework and to its hypothetical biological underpinnings, which makes its fundamentals unclear. Instead of offering explanations that refer to the same set (...) of principles, we observe systematic equivocations in PP‐based models, or outright contradictions with its avowed principles. To make matters worse, PP‐based models are seldom empirically validated, and they are frequently offered as mere just‐so stories. The large number of PP‐based models is thus not evidence of theoretical progress in unifying perception, action, and cognition. On the contrary, we maintain that the gap between theory and its biological and computational bases contributes to the arrested development of PP as a unificatory theory. Thus, we urge the defenders of PP to focus on its critical problems instead of offering mere re‐descriptions of known phenomena, and to validate their models against possible alternative explanations that stem from different theoretical assumptions. Otherwise, PP will ultimately fail as a unified theory of cognition. (shrink)

Solidarity is a principle oriented toward the common good that ensures that each person can have the necessary goods and services for a dignified life. As such, it is very often approached in a theoretical manner. In this empirical study, we explored the development of a culture of solidarity within an organizational context. In particular, we qualitatively investigated how a culture of solidarity can concretely spread within and beyond organizations by conducting 68 semi-structured interviews with members of three common (...) good-oriented organizations located in the Philippines, Korea, and Paraguay. We found that a culture of solidarity develops through a three-step process that includes constructing the solidarity mission, sharing solidarity, and disseminating solidarity, which together form a virtuous circle. We further found that solidarity is not supported by constrained, instrumentalized, or sacrificial actions, but can instead be a free, authentic, and fulfilling way for members of an organization to flourish while serving the mission of their company. (shrink)

This chapter examines how artificial intelligence (AI) engineering processes can foster and facilitate the development of racialized technologies. The authors ground their perspective on racialization using Sylvia Wynter’s definition of the biocentric Man genre of the human and its exclusion of Blackness from humanness. They then discuss some typical steps for developing AI-based technology, which they have broken down into six stages: problem identification, resource management, dataset development and data processing, model development, deployment and risk assessment, and (...) integration and monitoring. The goal of this chapter is to gain a deeper understanding of how the biocentric Man is represented and reinforced by the technologies we produce in the AI lifecycle and by the lifecycle itself. This chapter identifies ways in which the distinction of Blackness from the ideal human leads to perpetual punishment at the hands of these technologies. By deconstructing the AI development process, we can identify how people in general have not been prioritized and how this disproportionately affects marginalized individuals. The chapter also provides pathways to address these issues and encourage changes in AI engineering processes. (shrink)

Temporal concepts are fundamental constructs of human cognition, but the trajectory of how these concepts emerge and develop is not clear. Evidence of children’s temporal concept development comes from cognitive developmental and psycholinguistic studies. This paper reviews the linguistic factors (i.e., temporal language production and comprehension) and cognitive processes (i.e., temporal judgment and temporal reasoning) involved in children’s temporal conceptualization. The relationship between children’s ability to express time in language and the ability to reason about time, and the challenges (...) and difficulties raised by the interaction between cognitive and linguistic components are discussed. Finally, we propose ways to reconcile controversies from different research perspectives and present several avenues for future research to better understand the development of temporal concepts. (shrink)

Children are not simply molded by the environment; through constant inference and interpretation, they actively shape their own social world. This book is about that process. Elliot Turiel's work focuses on the development of moral judgment in children and adolescents and, more generally, on their evolving understanding of the conventions of social systems. His research suggests that social judgements are ordered, systematic, subtly discriminative, and related to behavior. His theory of the ways in which children generate social knowledge (...) through their social experiences will be of interest to a wide range of researchers and students in child development and education. (shrink)

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is one of the most prominent concepts in the literature and, in short, indicates the positive impacts of businesses on their stakeholders. Despite the growing body of literature on this concept, the measurement of CSR is still problematic. Although the literature provides several methods for measuring corporate social activities, almost all of them have some limitations. The purpose of this study is to provide an original, valid, and reliable measure of CSR reflecting the responsibilities of a (...) business to various stakeholders. Based on a proposed conceptual framework of CSR, a scale was developed through a systematic scale development process. In the study, exploratory factor analysis was conducted to determine the underlying factorial structure of the scale. Data was collected from 269 business professionals working in Turkey. The results of the analysis provided a four-dimensional structure of CSR, including CSR to social and nonsocial stakeholders, employees, customers, and government. (shrink)

This thesis examines the ethical stance appropriate for a world where Ontological Instability is true, where suffering is real but unstable, and where meaning emerges through relational engagement rather than fixed law. Building upon the author’s prior work on Ontological Instability, Emmanuel Levinas's relational ethics, Alfred North Whitehead's process philosophy, and contemporary empirical research in moral psychology, this work proposes "Relational Process Ethics" (RPE) as a novel ethical framework uniquely suited to ontologically unstable contexts. -/- The central thesis (...) argues that rather than seeking stability in an unstable world, ethics should embrace instability as the fundamental condition within which moral life unfolds. RPE offers five core principles: the Instability Principle, the Relational Genesis Principle, the Process Actualization Principle, the Dynamic Suffering Principle, and the Emergent Meaning Principle. These principles converge in a primary ethical orientation of "Responsive Attunement" that emphasizes dynamic responsiveness to emerging ethical demands rather than adherence to fixed moral laws. -/- Through formal logical analysis, empirical validation, and comprehensive theoretical development, this thesis demonstrates that RPE provides a coherent and practically viable approach to ethics that is both theoretically sophisticated and empirically grounded. The framework addresses traditional philosophical problems while offering novel insights into moral responsibility, ethical decision-making under uncertainty, and the nature of moral progress in an unstable world. (shrink)

The conjunction of process and reality is familiar from the original theory of A. N. Whitehead and the subsequent development of process philosophy and metaphysics by Nicholas Rescher. Classical logic, however, is either ignored or stated to be inappropriate to a discussion of process. In this paper, I will show that the value of a process view of reality can be enhanced by reference to a new, transconsistent logic of reality that is grounded in the (...) physical properties of energy in its various forms. These properties justify a principle of dynamic antagonism or opposition that explicates the phenomena of change at all levels of reality. It can be, accordingly, a preferred logic for understanding the dynamics of real processes. (shrink)

This paper aims to identify computerized management information systems resources and their relationship to the development of performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza. This research used two dimensions. The first dimension is computerized management information systems and the second dimension the Development of Performance. The control sample was (063). (360) questioners were distributed and (306) were retrieved back with a percentage of (85%). Several statistical tools were used for data analysis and hypotheses testing, including reliability correlation (...) using Cronbach’s alpha, “ANOVA”, Simple Linear Regression and Step Wise Regression. The overall findings of the current study suggested the presence of a statistically significant relationship between resources (physical, software, and human and organizational) for the computerized management information systems and the development of performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza. The study recommended the following: The need to strengthen the company's management interest in the potential of computerized management information systems and using them in the computerization of all the company's activities. And the need to involve workers and users in the design of computerized management information systems and assessment and development process. And strengthen the relationship between users and information systems personnel in the department responsible for the system. And it is essential that the company is developing the infrastructure for information technology in general, and computerized management information systems, in particular for the development of performance. And increase interest in providing resources (physical, software, and human and organizational) for the computerized management information systems. The current study is unique by the virtue of its nature, scope and way of implied investigation, as it is the first study at Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza resources explores the status of Computerized management information systems and their relationship to the development of performance in the Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza increasing interest in Computerized management information systems through continuity, keeping pace with technological means and modern techniques. (shrink)

"Legend is overdue for replacement, and an adequate replacement must attend to the process of science as carefully as Hull has done. I share his vision of a serious account of the social and intellectual dynamics of science that will avoid both the rosy blur of Legend and the facile charms of relativism.... Because of [Hull's] deep concern with the ways in which research is actually done, Science as a Process begins an important project in the study of (...) science. It is one of a distinguished series of books, which Hull himself edits."—Philip Kitcher, Nature "In Science as a Process, [David Hull] argues that the tension between cooperation and competition is exactly what makes science so successful.... Hull takes an unusual approach to his subject. He applies the rules of evolution in nature to the evolution of science, arguing that the same kinds of forces responsible for shaping the rise and demise of species also act on the development of scientific ideas."—Natalie Angier, New York Times Book Review "By far the most professional and thorough case in favour of an evolutionary philosophy of science ever to have been made. It contains excellent short histories of evolutionary biology and of systematics (the science of classifying living things); an important and original account of modern systematic controversy; a counter-attack against the philosophical critics of evolutionary philosophy; social-psychological evidence, collected by Hull himself, to show that science does have the character demanded by his philosophy; and a philosophical analysis of evolution which is general enough to apply to both biological and historical change."—Mark Ridley, Times Literary Supplement "Hull is primarily interested in how social interactions within the scientific community can help or hinder the process by which new theories and techniques get accepted.... The claim that science is a process for selecting out the best new ideas is not a new one, but Hull tells us exactly how scientists go about it, and he is prepared to accept that at least to some extent, the social activities of the scientists promoting a new idea can affect its chances of being accepted."—Peter J. Bowler, Archives of Natural History "I have been doing philosophy of science now for twenty-five years, and whilst I would never have claimed that I knew everything, I felt that I had a really good handle on the nature of science, Again and again, Hull was able to show me just how incomplete my understanding was.... Moreover, [Science as a Process] is one of the most compulsively readable books that I have ever encountered."—Michael Ruse, Biology and Philosophy. (shrink)

The central aim of this thesis is to confront the world-view of positivistic materialism with its nihilistic implications and to develop an alternative world-view based on process philosophy, showing how in terms of this, science and ethics can be reconciled. The thesis begins with an account of the rise of positivism and materialism, or ‘scientism’, to its dominant position in the culture of Western civilization and shows what effect this has had on the image of man and consequently on (...) ethical views. After having shown the basic weaknesses of this world-view, the positivist account of science is criticised and an alternative epistemology is developed in which the aim of disciplined inquiry is seen to be understanding. It is argued on the basis of this epistemology that science and metaphysics are indissociable, and that the materialist conception of being is open to challenge from a different ontology. Having reviewed the various conceptions of being which have been developed in the past, a version of process philosophy is outlined and it is argued that this promises to be far more effective than materialism as a foundation for the natural sciences. In particular it is shown how in terms of process philosophy it is possible to conceive of living, sentient organisms as having emerged from inanimate being. This provides the basis for the development of a conception of humanity as an emergent form of life. The human order is then seen as a process of becoming within nature with its own unique dynamics, irreducible to any other processes, involving both intentional and unintentional processes. It is shown how on the basis of this conception of humanity it is possible to develop an ethical theory and a critical social science, and in this way, to transcend the disjunction between science and ethics. -/- . (shrink)