Philosophy of Education in a Poor Historical Moment: A Personal Account

Under the post-metaphysical sky “old” humanistic-oriented education is possible solely at the cost of its transformation into its negative, into a power that is determined to diminish human potentials for self-exaltation. Nothing less than total metamorphosis is needed to rescue the core of humanistic genesis: the quest for edifying Life and resistance to the call for “home-returning” into the total harmony that is promised to us within nothingness.     

Global Scientific Outputs of Brain Death Publications and Evaluation According to the Religions of Countries

In 1950s, the concept of brain death, which began to be discussed primarily in terms of medicine and then in terms of religion, law, and ethics, became a central topic in all world countries as it was an early diagnosis of death. Despite the fact that brain death (BD) diagnosis is of importance for benefitting from organ and tissue transplantation of patients in the world, the literature still involves no bibliometric studies that made a holistic evaluation of the publications about this issue. The present study aims to investigate the top-cited articles about BD published between 1980 and 2018, identify the citation collaboration of the journals, demonstrate the collaboration between the countries, define the relationship between organ transplantation and BD, and reveal the latest developments and trend topics about this issue. In addition, this study aims to investigate the relationship between religions of countries and brain death publication productivity. Documents for bibliometric analysis were downloaded from Web of Science. The literature search was performed using the keywords “brain death/dead” during 1980–2018. The correlations between gross domestic product (GDP), Human Development Index (HDI) and publication productivity of the countries on BD were investigated with Spearman’s correlation coefficient. There was a high-level, statistically significant correlation between the number of publications and GDP, and HDI and the number of publications about BD (r = 0.761, p < 0.001; r = 0.703, p < 0.001). The USA was the top country in terms of publication productivity, which was followed by developed countries such as Germany, Japan, France, and Spain. However, the contribution of the undeveloped or developing countries such as China, Brazil, Turkey, Iran, and South Africa was found to be considerably important. While many people in the world die with undamaged organs, many other people die needing those organs. Therefore, it is considered that the collaborations and thus multidisciplinary studies about BD should be increased in the world countries, and the countries should be involved in bigger collaborations instead of little clusters. Especially, Muslim countries should be encouraged to do research and publish studies about the issues of brain death and organ transplantation.

     

The relationship between dysfunctional metacognitive beliefs and problematic social networking sites use

Social networking sites (SNSs) enrol new subscribers each day. However, problematic SNS use has undesirable effects on psychological functioning. Therefore, it is important to identify the factors that contribute to the development of problematic SNS use. Very few studies have focused on revealing the underlying mechanisms of problematic SNS use. Although many past studies have examined the relationship between metacognitive beliefs and Internet addiction, the association between metacognitive beliefs and problematic SNS use has not been adequately explored. In this study, we aimed to explore the association between metacognitive beliefs and problematic SNS use among young adults. A total of 308 individuals participated in this study. A socio-demographic data form, the Metacognitions Questionnaire-30 (MCQ-30), and Social Media Addiction Scale (SMAS) were administered. Group comparisons were performed using multivariate analysis of covariance. Pearson's correlational and multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to examine the associations between metacognitive beliefs and problematic SNS use. The SNS addicts scored higher in all of the SMAS assessments. When compared to non-addicts, SNS addicts obtained higher scores on all the subtests of the SMAS and MCQ-30 except cognitive self-consciousness. The negative beliefs about the uncontrollability and danger of worry, cognitive confidence, and need for control thoughts were associated with SMAS mood modification, relapse and conflict subdimensions. Our findings revealed that dysfunctional metacognitive beliefs are related to problematic SNS use among young adults. These findings indicate that mental health workers should consider the modification of metacognitive beliefs in the treatment of problematic SNS use.     

The Knowledge Argument and Objectivity

In this paper I argue that Frank Jackson’s Knowledge Argument is better considered not as an argument against physicalism, but as an argument that objective theories must be incomplete. I argue that despite the apparent diversity of responses to the knowledge argument, they all boil down to a response according to which genuine epistemic gains are made when an individual has an experience. I call this the acquaintance response. I then argue that this response violates an intuitive stricture on the objectivity of theories. Therefore, the knowledge argument does show that objective theories cannot provide a complete understanding of the world. The result, however, is that both objective dualism and objective physicalism are refuted by the argument. In the end it is suggested that the notion of “subjective physicalism” is one that should be pursued.     

How Wittgenstein Defeated Russell’s Multiple Relation Theory of Judgment

In 1913 Wittgenstein raised an objection to Russell’s multiple relation theory of judgment that eventually led Russell to abandon his theory. As he put it in the Tractatus, the objection was that “the correct explanation of the form of the proposition, ‘A makes the judgement p’, must show that it is impossible for a judgement to be a piece of nonsense. (Russell’s theory does not satisfy this requirement,” (5.5422). This objection has been widely interpreted to concern type restrictions on the constituents of judgment. I argue that this interpretation is mistaken and that Wittgenstein’s objection is in fact a form of the problem of the unity of the proposition.