On Modal <Emphasis Type="Italic">μ</Emphasis>-Calculus and Gödel-Löb Logic

We show that the modal μ-calculus over GL collapses to the modal fragment by showing that the fixpoint formula is reached after two iterations and answer to a question posed by van Benthem in [4]. Further, we introduce the modal μ ^~-calculus by allowing fixpoint constructors for any formula where the fixpoint variable appears guarded but not necessarily positive and show that this calculus over GL collapses to the modal fragment, too. The latter result allows us a new proof of the de Jongh, Sambin Theorem and provides a simple algorithm to construct the fixpoint formula. Presented by Melvin Fitting     

Transposition of flower height by bumble bee foragers (Bombus impatiens)

Honeybees learn visual characteristics of reinforced and non-reinforced flowers in differential conditioning experiments (i.e., experiments that require subjects to choose between a reinforced and non-reinforced flower). In this study bumble bee foragers (Bombus impatiens) were trained in a transposition paradigm to determine if the relational properties of flowers also influence choice behavior. Subjects in one group (group A) were trained with repeated choices between a medium-height flower replete with sucrose solution and an empty tall flower until the medium-height flower was sampled preferentially in five consecutive trials. A second group (group B) was trained on the medium height flower alone for five trials. In a single test trial subjects were given a choice between the medium-height flower and a short flower, each filled with water. A control group showed no preference in this test. Group B subjects showed a significant preference for the medium-height flower and group A subjects that exhibited flower constancy (i.e., sampled only the medium-height flower in training trials) showed an identical pattern of choice. Subjects in group A that sampled both flowers during training, in contrast, transposed flower height and preferred the short flower. These results suggest that the choice behavior of bumble bee foragers is influenced by relational and absolute properties of flowers. The flower characteristics learned by foragers appear to depend on the difficulty of the discrimination problem and the context in which flowers are sampled. Patches of flowers limited in phenotypic variability may produce simple associative learning and flower constancy by foragers. Received: 17 September 1999 / Accepted after revision: 22 June 2000     

Ein zeitgemäßer Blick auf die psychodynamische Psychotherapie und deren Zukunft

Zusammenfassung   In diesem Beitrag wird die Geschichte der psychodynamischen Psychotherapieforschung aus der pers?nlichen Sicht des Autors zusammengefa?t. Der überblick geht aus von grundlegenden Fragen nach der Wirkung von Psychotherapie und der Unterscheidung allgemeiner vs. spezifischer Wirkfaktoren. Mit der Schaffung von Techniken zur Untersuchung des Psychotherapieprozesses entwickelte sich die Forschung auf beeindruckende Weise weiter. In diesen Kontext geh?ren die vom Autor initiierten Vanderbilt-Psychotherapieprojekte, in denen prim?r der Beitrag des Therapeuten zum Behandlungsproze? im Blickpunkt standen. In dem Ausblick auf die Zukunft der Psychotherapie werden einige Desiderate formuliert, welche Ziele die Forschung in einer Zeit ?konomischen Drucks verfolgen sollte.      

Modal Frame Correspondences and Fixed-Points

Taking Löb's Axiom in modal provability logic as a running thread, we discuss some general methods for extending modal frame correspondences, mainly by adding fixed-point operators to modal languages as well as their correspondence languages. Our suggestions are backed up by some new results – while we also refer to relevant work by earlier authors. But our main aim is advertizing the perspective, showing how modal languages with fixed-point operators are a natural medium to work with.     

Thinking with,against, and beyond the Pratyabhijñā philosophy—and back again

We argue that the pratyabhijñā (recognition) system of Ka?mir ?aivism holds an inconsistent position. On the one hand, the Pratyabhijñā regards ?iva as an impersonal mechanism and the universe, including persons, as not having agency; call this the Impersonal Component. On the other hand, it considers ?iva himself as a person, and individual persons as having agency sufficient to respond to ?iva; call this the Personal Component. We maintain that the Personal Component should be affirmed and the Impersonal Component rejected. The Impersonal Component’s claim that ?iva is unaware of and unaffected by his manifestation should be rejected, and the doctrine of satkāryavāda should be modified. The universe is ?iva’s manifestation, in the first instance, but it also has a relative autonomy from him. Moreover, humans have agency and freedom. Their actions effect ?iva. He grows and develops in response to his manifestation.     

Ibn al-Ṭayyib’s Trinitarian Formulation in the Islamic Milieu

This article examines a theological treatise of Abū al-Faraj ?Abd Allāh Ibn al-?ayyib, a savant of the Assyrian Church of the East. The treatise discusses the Attributes of Deity demonstrating a thematic correspondence with the dominant polemical arguments occasioned by the Christian view of the Trinity and Christology. These include the relation of the hypostases to the attributes of essence, specifically the unity of the divine essence in contrast to the plurality of the hypostases. Ibn al-?ayyib also borrows concepts from the Muslim milieu to commend his Christian formulation. Most notable among these is the Ash?arī concept of the divine attributes (?ifāt) and their categorization. The Ash?arīs had limited the attributes of essence to seven. Ibn al-?ayyib limits them to three: paternity, filiation and procession. The article considers Ibn al-?ayyib’s Christian intellectual forebears, demonstrating that he used and amended their formulations. Finally, two Muslim polemicists are considered to establish that Ibn al-?ayyib was engaging with specific objections concerning the Christian Trinity. This thematic correspondence warrants a reconsideration of Ibn al-?ayyib’s contribution to the Muslim–Christian interface. Although never an explicitly polemic theologian, the savant-priest developed an implicit apologetic through his theological treatises that provided intellectual fortification for his Christian community.     

The Third Treatise of Shaykh Abū al-Faraj ʿAbd Allāh Ibn al-Ṭayyib on Unity and Trinity

The article consists of a critical Arabic edition and English translation of the Third Treatise of Shaykh Abū al-Faraj ?Abd Allāh Ibn al-?ayyib. The introduction provides a brief, general orientation to the treatise, discussing its relation to two other treatises by the same author and suggesting a chronology. The translation accompanies an article analysing the treatise titled: ‘Ibn al-?ayyib’'s Trinitarian Formulation in the Islamic Milieu’ (Kuhn, M. 2018. “Ibn al-?ayyib’s Trinitarian Formulation in the Islamic Milieu.” Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations 29 (2): 123–143).     

What Is Islam? The Importance of Being Islamic in Christian Theological Schools

This article argues for reconceptualizing islām as ‘wholeness making, peacemaking, well-being making, and safety making’ in the institutional setting of theological schools. A small number of Protestant seminaries have hired Muslim faculty and introduced Islamic studies programmes, thereby allowing for approaches to the study of Islam that focus on theology, professional practice and the lived experience of religion. Using the lens of translation studies, this article analyses the semantic and functional equivalence of this fourfold meaning in the Arabic source language and context, as well as the English target language and context, focusing on Emmanuel College of Victoria University in the University of Toronto as an example. The article demonstrates how this translation is linguistically more accurate than ‘submission’ and other conceptualizations and contextually better suited to meeting the theological and professional needs of students who venture into the workplace. Furthermore, the article shows how this fourfold translation serves as an overarching ethos in ethical reasoning, rendering the central theory of the objectives of the law (maqā?id al-sharī?a) functional and pragmatic. At the same time, it provides a foundation for dealing with diversity and difference in interreligious and intercultural settings.     

Defining Muslims on the Afghan Frontier: T. P. Hughes and His Dictionary of Islam

ABSTRACT

Christian missionaries working in India in the nineteenth century made numerous important contributions to European and North American understandings of Islam. One such contribution was the Dictionary of Islam compiled by the Anglican missionary Thomas Patrick Hughes, who was serving in Peshawar on the border between British India and Afghanistan. Drawing upon sources such as collections of Hadith, he provided both brief definitions and some longer analyses of a wide range of aspects of Muslim beliefs, practices and history. However, his compilation was not entirely based on textual sources, but was also informed by daily contact with Muslims in and around Peshawar, particularly Maulavi Ahmad of Tangi. Hughes combined his interest in defining Islam with a passion for exploring and explaining Afghan culture and politics to his readership in Britain. Although situated on ‘the edges of empire’, Hughes nonetheless found himself at the centre of world events as the intrigue between Britain and Russia resulted in the Second Anglo-Afghan War. Although located in what some considered a minor province on the periphery of the Muslim world, he nonetheless produced a major reference work on Islam that is still in print.     

Oedipal aspirations and phallic fears: on fetishism in childhood and young adulthood

The main theoretical position on fetishism remains that outlined by Freud, the splitting of the ego and castration anxiety being central to the establishment of the fetish. The dangers and attractions of an oedipal resolution are outlined in the case of 'Stanley', an older adolescent whose nappy wearing, transvestism and obsession with pregnant mothers and their babies brought him to therapy. The paper demonstrates some of the technical difficulties in such work, the slow ego-structuring that is necessary, the patient's swift perception of danger at any failure of attunement by the therapist and subsequent flight to the perverse defence, and the impetus that acceptance of oedipal gain may bring to development. Die wesentliche theoretische Position bezüglich Fetischismus bleibt die von Freud umrissene, dass Ichspaltung und Kastrationsangst bei der Etablierung des Fetischs zentral sind. Es werden die Gefahren und Anziehungspunkte einer ödipalen Lösung im Fall von 'Stanley' dargestellt, einem älteren Jugendlichen, den sein Windeltragen, Transvestismus und Besessenheit mit schwangeren Müttern und ihren Babies zu Therapie brachte. Der Artikel zeigt einige der technischen Schwierigkeiten in solch einer Arbeit, das langsame Ich-strukturieren, das notwendig ist, die schnelle Gefahrenwahrnehmung des Patientens bei jeglicher Missanpassung des Therapeutens und die darauffolgende Flucht in perverse Abwehr, und den Antrieb, den das Akzeptieren des ödipalen Gewinns zur Entwicklung bringen kann, auf. Des conceptions théoriques du fétichisme, la plus connue reste encore celle proposée par Freud, dans laquelle le clivage du moi et l'angoisse de castration sont à l'origine de la mise en place de l'objet fétiche. Les dangers et les charmes d'une résolution ?dipienne sont esquissés à travers le cas de û Stanley ý, garçon en fin d'adolescence qui entreprend une thérapie en raison de certains de ces comportements?:?il aime porter des couches, il se travestit et il est obsédé par les femmes enceintes et leurs bébés. L'auteur souligne quelques-unes des difficultés techniques posées par ce travail, la lenteur avec laquelle il faut laisser se structurer le moi, la perception rapide par le patient d'un danger imminent dès que sa thérapeute n'est plus tout à fait en accordage avec lui, sa fuite alors vers une défense perverse, et la stimulation que l'acceptation des enrichissements ?dipiens peut entraîner pour son développement. La posizione teorica principale sul feticismo resta quella illustrata da Freud, secondo la quale la scissione dell'Io e le ansie di castrazione sono determinanti alla formazione del feticcio. I pericoli e le attrazioni di una risoluzione del complesso edipico sono illustrate nel caso di 'Stanley', un tardo adolescente arrivato in terapia perche' usava i pannolini, si travestiva e aveva un' ossessione per le donne incinte e i loro bambini. L'articolo tratta di alcune delle difficolta' tecniche in questo tipo di lavoro, della lenta e necessaria ricostruzione dell'Io, della rapida percezione del pericolo del paziente quando egli sente una mancanza di sintonia con il terapeuta e la conseguente fuga verso difese perverse, e dell'impeto che l'accettazione dei vantaggi edipici possono portare allo sviluppo.