CARTESIAN PHILOSOPHY AS SPIRITUAL PRACTICE

Although Descartes has in some ways become a symbol of academic isolation, we can dispel this misunderstanding by taking into consideration the holistic nature of Cartesian philosophy. Descartes understood the various branches of philosophy as constituting an organic totality of knowledge that, because of its dependence on imagination and sensation, remains irreducible to intellectual comprehension. Ethics holds a particularly significant place in Cartesian philosophy, and this essay both demonstrates the spiritual nature of Cartesian ethics and explains why Descartes saw ethics as “the ultimate degree of wisdom” so as to illustrate how we can interpret Cartesian philosophy as a spiritual practice. This takes place through a discussion of the distinctions and interconnections of Descartes’s three primary notions (soul, body, and the union of soul and body) and concludes by reflecting on the specific temporality of nobility as well as addressing several objections to Cartesian ethics.     

AN INTERNATIONAL LOOK AT SELECTION PRACTICES: NATION AND CULTURE AS EXPLANATIONS FOR VARIABILITY IN PRACTICE

A survey of 959 organizations in 20 countries was undertaken to assess whether differences in staffing practices are due in part to nation and culture. Cultural differences in uncertainty avoidance and, to a lesser extent, power distance, explained some of the national differences observed in the extensiveness of method use. Implications for understanding the best approaches to selection on a global basis are discussed.     

THE “SCIENTIFIC MIRACLE OF THE QUR’ĀN,” PSEUDOSCIENCE,AND CONSPIRACISM

This article, after tracing a precise classification of the exegetical trend known as i?jāz ?ilmī, summarizes and discusses the criticism leveled at it and examines how the “scientific interpretation” of the Qur’ān is liable to blend with pseudoscience and conspiracy theories to the detriment of a solid harmonization of science and religion and of a genuine appreciation of natural science. Furthermore, the article offers some practical ideas that can be implemented in order to effectively and fairly address i?jāz ?ilmī in the Muslim world.     

EXTENDING THE GLOBAL ACADEMIC TABLE: AN INTRODUCTION

Before commenting on the papers from a recent interdisciplinary gathering of scholars from China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, a case is made for regional academia conversations today, because international conferences, especially in the humanities and social sciences, are still dominated by “Western” traditions, discourse, and protocols. After touching on the relative stability or variability of phenomena and procedures in the natural sciences, humanities, and social sciences, political and cultural questions are considered along with some of the ongoing consequences of the East Asian adoption of the European model of the modern research university.     

TRUTH AS AN EPISTEMIC IDEAL

Several philosophers—including C. S. Peirce, William James, Hilary Putnam and Crispin Wright—have proposed various versions of the notion that truth is an epistemic ideal. More specifically, they have held that a proposition is true if and only if it can be fixedly warranted by human inquirers, given certain ideal epistemic conditions. This paper offers a general critique of that idea, modeling conceptions of ideality and fixed warrant within the semantics that Kripke developed for intuitionistic logic. It is shown that each of the two plausible notions of fixed warrant faces difficulties and that, moreover, “truth” defined in terms of either of them is distressingly dependent upon one’s conception of idealized inquiry and perhaps also upon one’s standards of warrant.     

AN INVESTIGATION OF COMPLIANCE-GAINING AS POLITENESS

This study considers an alternative perspective on the compliance-gaining phenomenon, specifically the theory of politeness articulated by Brown and Levinson (1978). They posit that all interaction is characterized by concern over the other person's autonomy needs and his or her desire to be liked, manifested in message behavior that addresses these needs (i.e., politeness). Brown and Levinson's typology of politeness strategies was translated into 32 items to which 155 respondents indicated likelihood of use and perceived politeness. Respondents assessed the items while imagining themselves in one of eight hypothetical scenarios created to manipulate the three situational factors posited as significant by Brown and Levinson: relationship distance, relationship power, and the magnitude of the request. A factor analysis reduced the 32 tactics to four underlying factors, which in turn served as one variable set for a canonical correlation whose second variable set was the situational factors and the agent's gender. Results indicated that females and persons in close relationships use more polite tactics than males and persons in more distant relationships. Secondarily, results also indicated that persons with power use less politeness than less powerful persons.     

INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE AS AN EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS

Abstract. I explore the contributions of Ibrahim Moosa, a Muslim legal scholar, to a Muslim‐Christian dialogue on religion and science. Moosa begins from the context of Shari'a, Islamic law, and not from the usual issues of the religion‐science dialogue. Beginning as it does from a legal tradition, the approach suggests a perspective on science and religion that is particular to Islam and provides insight into how an authentic dialogue between Muslims and Christians would proceed—and thereby an alternative model for a religion‐science dialogue.     

ATTENTION AS AN ESTABLISHING OPERATION AND AS REINFORCEMENT DURING FUNCTIONAL ANALYSES

Results of functional analyses for 36 individuals whose self-injurious behavior (SIB) was maintained by attention indicated that SIB was highest during a condition in which the individual was deprived of attention (establishing operation) except as a consequence (reinforcer). Deprivation in the absence of reinforcement produced marginal increases in SIB in 5 individuals, and a relatively rich schedule of noncontingent attention produced the lowest levels of SIB. These results suggest that clearer functional analysis outcomes are likely to be obtained when test conditions contain both an establishing operation to evoke behavior as well as a reinforcement contingency to maintain it.     

RACE AND ACADEMIC STATUS AS DETERMINANTS OF FRIENDSHIP FORMATION: A FIELD STUDY

Milgram's “small world” method was modified to trace interpersonal bonds among members of a university International House containing 154 male and female, graduate and undergraduate, and Australian and Overseas students. Sixteen residents, balanced for race, academic status and sex, served as starters for chain booklets circulating through the House from friend to friend. Social networks were inferred from the circulation pattern of the booklets. It was predicted that both race similarity and academic status congruence would contribute to affiliation, but that academic status would be a more salient determinant in the undergraduate condition, whereas race would be more salient in the graduate group. Fifteen chains progressed beyond their respective starters, and 111 transactions generated by 77 different individuals (or 50% of all the residents) were recorded. The data were in accord with all theoretical expectations.     

USE OF AN ASSESSMENT CENTER AS AN AID IN MANAGEMENT SELECTION

An application of assessment center procedures is described for the selection of first level managers from the craft ranks. Information is reported on how the assessment data are used in promotion decisions. An evaluation study was conducted that indicates that the assessment center program has a positive effect on performance of managers at the first level and the pool of potential for higher levels of management. The study results also suggest ways in which assessment data can be used more effectively in promotion decisions.     

COMMUNICATION AS AN INTENTIONAL,SOCIAL SYSTEM

The argument is presented that taking communication as intentional and as a social system is necessary although not sufficient for defining the concept of communication for scholarly and research purposes. To illustrate the tendency and the error of ignoring the sociality of communication the notion of “intrapersonal communication” is examined. It is contended that many authors reject “intention” as a defining attribute of communication as a result of a strong tendency toward seeing the concept only in a defective form, represented as “speaker's purpose” and that the sense of “intention” needs to be grounded in a prior notion of “intentionality.”     

PHILOSOPHY AS A FEMINIST SPIRITUALITY AND CRITICAL PRACTICE FOR MARY ASTELL

The question of how gender might inflect and affect philosophy as a way of life has been somewhat neglected, as has the role of philosophical modes of living for historical female philosophers. This essay draws on Michel Foucault’s multifaceted, Hadot-inspired conception of philosophy to show how transformative philosophical practices of the self function as feminist praxis in the work of the early modern feminist philosopher Mary Astell. Philosophy in Astell’s texts, the essay argues, is a spiritual practice of the self that at the same time functions as a feminist critique both of sexist social structures and of the self that undertakes the practice. It facilitates women in achieving internal freedom. Finally, the essay discusses potential feminist concerns about Astell’s proposed philosophical way of living, before suggesting that it may have value for women today.