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This article aims to reveal some aspects of relationships between former slaves and their ex-owners in light of seventeenth-century Crimean qadi court records. It elaborates on a number of terms that indicate the social and legal status of slaves in the Crimean Khanate and analyzes a former slave probate inventory. In addition, the paper also examines the phenomenon of the mükâtebe contract in the Crimean Khanate context which allowed slaves to hold slaves; it thus seeks to provide new perspectives on the exercising of the mükâtebe. The paper considers how social fluidity affected the lives of slaves, explores the question of whether manumitted slaves actually attained the same status as the freeborn, and, finally, traces the ways in which dependency relationships evolved between freed former slaves and the slaves held by these latter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically appraises the role of the opium trade in the politics of 18th-century Macao. By examining previously unexplored Portuguese accounts on opium smuggling, this study contributes new insights into the shift in attitudes of the Macanese authorities towards the opium trade in this period, which subsequently aided further European opium smuggling in the Pearl River Delta. Thus, this paper fills an important gap in our understanding of the transformation that took place in the period before opium became a bone of contention between the Qing dynasty and European powers, on the eve of the Opium Wars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tax evasion and avoidance have remained fundamental reasons for the gradual pace of development of Nigeria's economy since the inception of colonial rule. This study examines the issues of tax evasion and avoidance in Nigeria, and the role of the government, the citizens and the enabling laws in the under-development of the Nigerian economy. To present credible evidence around the focus of the research, the study adopts historical research methods considering both secondary sources (textbooks, peer-reviewed journal articles and newspaper reports) and primary sources (archival materials and oral interviews). The eventual findings of the paper indicate that some Nigerian groups frequently avoid paying their proportionate share of tax. The paper further finds that although tax reduction can help to reduce the incidence of tax evasion, resource-poor people frequently pay higher taxes than the wealthy, who commonly find ways to avoid paying their fair share of taxes; and also that tax officials manipulate tax rates in favour of rich clients. The study therefore concludes that tax evasion and avoidance will be mitigated if policymakers ensure that taxation is less arbitrary and burdensome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines issues of the slave trade and slavery in the Momo River valley of Cameroon. Using primary sources (oral tradition and archival materials) and secondary sources, the paper shows the impact of the transatlantic slave trade in the region not only in the slave trade and slaving activities but also in the transformation of some old social institutions and the emergence of new ones. The paper argues that the transatlantic slave trade introduced capitalists in this part of Africa, who continued to make profits from legitimate commerce after the abolition of the slave trade through the persistent enslavement of other Africans to work in the palm oil industry. The Momo River valley continued to be a major source of these slaves. This paper therefore brings into the limelight slavery and the slave trade in an area which contributed to the transatlantic and the post-transatlantic slave trade but which has still not received adequate scholarly attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sébastien Le Clerc was born into a family of goldsmiths in Lorraine, and received classical artisanal training. Yet over the course of a highly successful career as an engraver, he also became a widely published scientific author. This paper argues that geometrical skills played a key role in the dual development of Le Clerc's career, and in his striving for recognition as a man of letters, as well as an engraver. By a detailed study of the geometrical skills displayed in Le Clerc's two geometrical publications, this paper revisits the thorny question of the relations between scholars and artisans in the early modern period. Rather than a dependence on his hands-on, bodily experience, it was Le Clerc's skill in geometry that lent support to his aspiring scholarly career. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper brings the Kristevan perspective on hierarchy into a conversation with norm research and accordingly borrows the concept of the abject, formulated to study the formation of the Self and Other and the following hierarchy between the two, to better understand the hierarchical implications of norm diffusion. The research, therefore, redefines norm diffusion as a practice of norm abjection due to the diffusion's hegemonic, subordinating, and transformative character, and doing so has enabled us to illustrate the implications for the norm research of the dual-performative function of the normative hierarchy: (i) formation of the boundary between the Self and the Other and (ii) maintaining it through active exclusion and normative expansion. The paper empirically studies the functioning of norm abjection in the example of the United Nations' (UN) harmful traditional practices (HTP) agenda, a fiercely condemnatory and decisively transformative normative project of the UN informed by its liberative development discourses and emancipatory gender regime. The paper, accordingly, examines the UN's abjecting of the harmful traditional practices as part of its efforts for diffusing progressive and emancipatory gender norms to the localities in the underdeveloped world to cast out the local vicious, wicked, primitive, and not-so- normative practices and rather implant the true, moral, superior , and universal norms. Our findings contribute to the unveiling of the dual-performative hierarchy the norm diffusion generates and of the colonial subject position the UN maintains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is motivated by a question of naturalized epistemology of W. V. Quine and the question is how a naturalistic account gives rise to theoretical understanding with its realistic ontology. I concentrate on the possibility of the principle of reification by way of interpretation and the point is how we interpret interpretation in a naturalistic account. First, we must distinguish between Quine and Carnap based upon the distinction of interpretation versus reduction. Second, we should take seriously the function of observation and the consequent interpretation with regard to reality and ontological understanding. This article also exams the positions of Descartes, Kant and recent philosophers Gadamer and Davidson. In doing so, some test cases of interpretation analyze in particular the case of "anomalous monism". Finally, this paper makes effort to focus on quantum mechanics as an object of naturalistic interpretation, although it is itself a naturalistic interpretation of classical physics and relativity based upon observation of new features of reality. In conclusion, the Yijing philosophy of change is cited as a possible, useful and meaningful interpretation of quantum mechanics just as quantum mechanics could be a useful and meaningful interpretation of the Yijing 's onto-cosmology (which theory I had established two decades ago). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we situate the act of listening in the context of children's rights whilst highlighting the benefits of this practice on the psychological and neurological development of children. After unpacking the concept of listening and the role it plays in adult-child communication, we share the results of a scoping review where we examined neuroscientific studies pointing to the benefits of listening and what relevance such evidence has for children's rights implementation. As such, this paper shows that when adults listen to children in the context of safe, nurturing, and empathic interactions, children draw tangible benefits to many areas of their development. We conclude proposing enhancing adults' capacity for listening as a strategy to contribute to the fulfillment of the rights of children of all ages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indonesia is the country with the largest archipelago in the world, with a total of seventeen thousand islands. The term 'maritime nation' has actually been surging through stories of local wisdom (culture), but during the colonial period, the term lost its original significance and Indonesia came to be treated as if it were an agrarian country. This paper shows that Indonesian maritime society contains various inherited values of religiosity, including myths, legends, folklore, and oral traditions about marine cosmology. Folklore, myths, and legends have an important position in society, not only referring to cultural traditions but also containing religious or theological values that are closely related to the identity of the Indonesian nation. This paper studies the mythical figure of Nyi Roro Kidul who is considered the sea guardian. The legend surrounding the figure of Nyi Roro Kidul can serve as an important trope to develop a contextual Javanese eco-pneumatology [Holy Spirit] and help address some of the contemporary ecological issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores Fadwā Ṭūqān's and Maḥmūd Darwīsh's poetry written in the wake of the 1967 June War, the Israeli siege of Beirut in 1982, and the Second Intifāḍah (uprising) in 2002. Specifically, the article investigates how the poets mobilize the Arabic elegiac (rithāʾ) genre, as well as pre-Islamic and early Islamic poetic traditions, in order to contemplate the future and foster a mode of proleptic mourning. This paper asserts that these two Palestinian poets utilize the longstanding elegiac form in Arabic literary heritage to not only summon and lament past events and atrocities, but to conjecture about the insecurity that they anticipate in the years to come. The poems render both hopeful and pessimistic sentiments and premonitions, demonstrating how the ongoing Israeli occupation and the Palestinians' resultant losses over time have precipitated increasingly sobering and distressing speculations about the perpetuation of Palestinians' grief in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phylogeny of field crabs has been under profuse discussion for several decades. At this juncture, this paper reassesses the "decades old" phylogenetic status of an edible field crab, hitherto referred to as Paratelphusa hydrodromous , inhabiting the paddy fields of Chelari village (Kerala, India). After Alcock's (1910) description, there has hardly been any serious attempt at ascertaining its precise taxonomic status. Through an integrated approach, using parsimony analysis and molecular methods, the present study reveals the candidate form's (species') closer affinity to the genus Oziotelphusa. Comparison of morphological and molecular characteristics with its closest phylogenetic neighbours (O. biloba , O. wagrakarowensis , O. kerala and O. aurantia) has shown that the candidate form is a taxonomically distinct entity, qualified to be considered as an unreported species; its suggested revised nomenclature is Oziotelphusa chelarensis , reminiscent of the village Chelari. Further, the paper views the relevance of this taxonomic study from conservational angles as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In feminist research on religion, women and gender, the concepts of "lived religion" as well as "agency as doing religion" take a prominent place. Both include an intersubjective and mostly partial perspective. However, against the background of current developments concerning a global religious right, the paper argues for the inclusion of a critical perspective through the methodology of a double critique that includes both an analysis of power relations that marginalize women in religious groups and an analysis of women's reproduction of gendered as well as racialized power relations. This argument is embedded in the complexity of post-secular feminist research including research on women, gender and religion, feminist critiques of secularism (and of anti-Muslim discourses), feminist, queer and trans theologies, and research on the religious right and their anti-feminist politics. The paper suggests to take feminist theologies and feminist spiritualities/religious practices as reference point for such an analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this volume, we bring together research on African derived Religions in Latin America and African American Religions in the USA. Theoretically, the concepts of hybridity and syncretism are discussed, in the introduction as well as in the papers included. The papers featured deal with Brazilian Umbanda, Cuban Santería, US African Black Hebrew Israelites, the Five Percenter movement (an offspring of the Nation of Islam), and one single person, Robert T. Browne, an activist in the Black Nationalist movement. In the religions covered – that are an outcome of the historical circumstances of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade – elements taken from West and Central African traditions, European Christianity, and Kardecian Spiritism blend to new forms of religious movements. This being the "fundamental" transformation of religion addressed here, some essays in the volume also look at the further transformation of those traditions in a "glocalized" world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the University of Glasgow Library's copy of Pius II's Epistolae familiares (Nuremberg: Anton Koberger, 16 Sept. 1481), recorded on leaf 1–1v one can find a copy of a letter addressed to Pope Innocent VIII that starts with the heading "Soldanus pontifici Romano pro Restauracione Iunioris filii senioris Turchi". The letter's sender, who is referred to in the text as the "Sultan of Babylon", was the Caliph of Cairo, al-Mutawakkil II (Abdul Aziz ibn Yaʿqub ibn Muhammad). The present text discusses the content of the letter and the issues regarding the question of its authorship. To ensure a comprehensive presentation of the argumentation, the paper not only discusses the content of the letter but also explores the wider context in which it was produced, situating it against the wider history of the Mamluk state and Mamluk diplomacy as well as the late medieval tradition of the exchange of correspondence (both real and fictitious) between the Christian and Muslim worlds. It needs underlining that not only has the content of the letter in question hitherto been substantially unknown to scholars, but the letter is furthermore the first discovered correspondent from an ʿAbbasid Caliph sent to the head of Western Christianity. The paper offers a contribution to research on intercultural communication. The paper comes with three appendices: a transliteration and a translation of the letter and a facsimile of the original record. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the planning discourse two poles have materialised over the last decades: a participatory ideal guided by substantive rationality, opposed to an algorithmic governmentality subordinated to instrumental reason. This rift within socialist thought is also observable when it comes to the discovery of needs. The paper understands this discovery procedure primarily as a forecasting problem and demonstrates how many authors dedicated to a participatory planning process call for consumers to write down their desires in the form of wish lists. As a response to this epistemically questionable discovery procedure, the state of the art in capitalist demand-forecasting at enterprises like Amazon is presented, where machine-learning algorithms excel at modelling interrelated time series on a global level by extrapolating demand patterns in real-time. The paper closes with a proposal to reconfigure this predictive apparatus for socialist ends and raises questions concerned with the political implications of centralising decision-making in black-box algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper challenges mainstream theories of Latin American development, showing their theoretical weaknesses and pointing to their role in ideologically mediating the region's 'truncated' capitalism. To that end, the paper presents an alternative view of Latin American development that starts by considering capitalist social reproduction as a worldwide process and regional/national politico-economic development as mediations in the structuring of global capital accumulation. Latin America's specific variety of capitalism is understood to have emerged from its original transformation by expanding European capital into a place to produce raw materials under favourable natural conditions. On the one hand, this has reduced their price and that of the labour-power directly or indirectly consuming them; on the other, it has resulted in a flow of surplus-value towards the owners of those natural conditions of production. The historical development of Latin American societies has expressed the partial overcoming of that antagonistic relationship between rent-paying capital and rent-appropriating landed property. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though many prospective dog guardians have an optimistic view of dog-human relationships, the realities can be challenging. This paper discusses carer-reported emotional impacts of dealing with more problematic relationships with dogs. This study used a Grounded Theory method to qualitatively analyze 35 discussion threads about dog behavior, from two UK-based online discussion forums between June–October 2019. The study found a close link between the carers’ perceptions of their relationships with their dogs, and whether the dogs behaved in ways that the owners considered acceptable. Puppy owners experienced substantial emotional disruption when they perceived the behaviors of their puppies to be outside of their expected boundaries. This paper highlights the importance of helping carers to manage their expectations of dog guardianship, and underlines the importance of emotional support when carers struggle to cope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mainstream discourse on minority rights embodies a series of normative biases and assumptions, which ignore the colonial underpinning of some of the core concepts such as the definition of minority and the notion of minority protection. In this paper, I argue that contemporary minority rights discourse needs to engage closely with relations of power and subaltern agency to 'decolonise' conventional thinking within the discipline. I unpack this decolonising agenda and map out what such an agenda would entail by critically analysing five key areas of relevance: reconceptualising the minority to expose 'otherness' embedded in the concept; scrutinising the reification of the state as a prerequisite for decolonising minority rights discourse; mainstreaming subaltern resistance; reevaluating a priori assumptions about the need for legal interventions; and finally, taking seriously the political economy of neo-colonial violence. Thus, the paper offers a framework for systematically thinking about decolonial promises of minority rights discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To conduct their work, Human-Animal Studies scholars, practitioners, and activists need to understand how different nations treat animals. Although extant cross-national measures of the treatment of animals are helpful, they are quantitatively unsophisticated, narrow in focus, and nontransparent. This paper offers a sounder methodology for measuring how nations treat animals. Using polychoric factor analysis of nine indicators that capture the treatment of animals in 154 nations, this study creates three new Treatment-of-Animals measures: Political-Commitment, Animal-Use, and a Composite-Score (the average between the previous two measures). A construct validity test demonstrates that all three measures are valid. The study then reports how different nations and regions fare on each measure and discusses important trends that these outcomes reveal. The paper concludes by explaining how scholars, practitioners, and activists will benefit from these new Treatment-of-Animals variables, and it confronts some limitations with these measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nineteenth Century Qazvin was a maelstrom of religious controversy and conflict. Uṣūlīs, Akhbārīs, Shaykhīs, Bābīs, and Bahā'īs all interacted in conflict with each other and sometimes even in violence. This paper will first try to create a religious map of Qazvin in the early 19th Century. The central figure for much of the religious conflict in the city was Qurrat al-ʿAyn Tahirih, the daughter of an Uṣūlī scholar, who became a Shaykhī and then a Bābī. This paper will look at the circle of women around her and how she interacted with them. Although she herself was killed in 1852, the impact that she had on the women of the city had a lasting direct effect until the end of the nineteenth century and an indirect one up the present time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a historical overview of the role of soft law of the Council of Europe in Polish court proceedings. Soft law refers to legal acts that are not formally legally binding, but nevertheless constitute important guidelines for the operation of state authorities. The article focuses on the role of documents adopted by the Council of Europe, such as resolutions, recommendations or declarations, in the process of shaping the Polish legal system. An analysis of the guidelines and standards introduced by the Council of Europe in the field of human rights protection, equality and standards of court proceedings has been undertaken. The paper also shows the evolution of the position of Polish courts in relation to the soft law of the Council of Europe. Have the documents adopted by the Council of Europe been incorporated into legal arguments and jurisprudence in the Polish legal system and how? The study aims to outline the historical key moments and trends in the application of soft law of the Council of Europe in Polish court proceedings. It shows the impact of these soft instruments on the development of the Polish legal system and legal culture, as well as on the evolution of the perception and use of international standards by Polish courts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Christoph D. Schubart, a highly regarded member of the carcinological community and esteemed member of the Board of Editors for Crustaceana, has sadly passed away. In honor of his memory, the journal plans to pay tribute to him in three ways: an obituary in a regular issue, a memorial issue featuring scientific papers dedicated to him, and an additional obituary providing further information about his scientific legacy. Christoph had a successful career in science, focusing on Brachyura, and made significant contributions to the study of decapods. He published approximately 200 papers and collaborated with colleagues from all over the world. His legacy will continue to shape the field of carcinology for future generations. This text consists of testimonials from Christoph D. Schubart's colleagues, friends, and students, expressing their shock and sadness at his sudden passing. The testimonials highlight his contributions to the field, his passion for crabs, and his mentorship and friendship. They emphasize the profound impact he had on those who knew him and the void his loss has created in the scientific community. [Extracted from the article]

Mills' paper tackles an important question for Jungian studies: what are the underlying metaphysical assumptions behind analytical psychology? However, his attempt to pursue this inquiry is undermined by a strong but unsupportable insistence by Mills that Jung intended to present himself primarily as an ontologist. I also argue that various further inaccuracies and misreadings lead Mills into a fundamental misunderstanding of the intentions and aims that characterise Jung's psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Grand Vizier from 1782 to 1785, Halil Hamid Pasha established a pious foundation (vakif) in 1783. Administered by his descendants, the foundation gave impetus to various forms of family genealogy in the last two centuries. Celal Bükey and his son Erol Bükey administered the foundation (tevliyet) from 1973 to 1981 and from 1992 to 2002 respectively. Using their personal documents, the article studies the way father and son handled the various symbolic materials they had inherited from their predecessors in order to transform an ancien régime lineage into a republican dynasty organized through new family memorial references. Underlining the extent to which family archives need to be addressed as a cumulative process of preserving documents as deeds that legally guarantee ownership, the article also reassesses the line usually drawn by scholars between private papers and public archives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the concept of nature in the early modem period, writing technologies and massive collection of loci communes.

In this paper, I suggest that the narrative of 2 Sam. 18:1–19:9 is read in the Korean context of being “united yet divided” through which K.P. Hong illuminates the duality between the ideal and the real in Judah’s relationship with Israel. The opposition between David and Joab represents the dual circumstance of a community seeking union and simultaneously confronting division. Such duality is also observed in the distinction drawn between Ahimaaz and the Cushite. The violence in the narrative functions significantly to otherize Absalom and establish who We are. Also, the violence is intimately associated with Deut. 21:22–23 and the divine will. Therefore, a reading of this narrative through the Korean context can offer a means of resolving the difficulties of 2 Sam. 18:1–19:9 and generate the possibility of a new interpretation of the text in its present form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is not without reason that generations of interpreters have often characterized Jonah in a negative light. This paper argues that the rhetorical workings of Jon. 4:1–11 can be seen as a gaslighting strategy, as the text guides its readers to delegitimize and pathologize the resistant voice of Jonah to elevate yhwh’s universalistic and impartial mercy. Drawing upon research literature in gaslighting studies and discussing how gaslighting can be a helpful lens for analyzing ancient texts, I explore how the text utilizes the voice of yhwh to subject Jonah to a “crazy-making” process by sidestepping the issue, attributing flaws to Jonah’s logic and emotions, and finally silencing the prophet with the deliberate ending in the coda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on three case studies, this paper examines the influence of parliamentary opposition parties on Georgia’s foreign policy as a country with a hybrid regime. The study covers an eight-year period from the start of the Georgian Dream party’s rule in 2012 to the end of 2020 when pro-Western opposition forces were strong and the government pursued a “normalization” policy with Russia. An analysis of the cases reveals that the parliamentary opposition has leverage in foreign policy to put pressure on the government. Yet the case studies show that the opposition’s influence on foreign policy was manifested mainly by non-parliamentary means, particularly in mobilizing international actors and shaping public opinion on specific foreign policy issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attempts to unify Marxist and feminist social critique have been vexed by the fact that ‘patriarchy’ predates the advent of capitalism (its transhistorical status). Feminists within the Marxist, socialist, and materialist traditions have responded to this point by either granting patriarchy a certain autonomy relative to capitalism (the ‘dual/triple systems’ approach), or by suggesting that patriarchal relations have a foundational and necessary status in the history of capitalist development (which we term the ‘origins-subsistence’ approach). This paper offers an alternative account of the relationship between capitalism and the transhistorical status of ‘patriarchy’. In aid of a ‘unitary theory’ of Marxist Feminism, we argue that the transhistorical status of patriarchy is better understood through an application of Marx’s concepts of formal and real subsumption. A modified version of these concepts can illuminate not only capitalist appropriation of antecedent social and economic forms, but also its capacity to produce new forms of gendered exploitation and oppression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the theological dimensions of the Septuagint (LXX) gaining interest, this paper focuses on anthropomorphisms—instances attributing human-like traits to God—as a noteworthy element of LXX-theology, where the avoidance of such attributions is considered indicative of a more transcendent conception of God. The article examines the anthropomorphism of God’s “mouth” in the Pentateuch, particularly the unique translation in Num 20:24. Doing so, the study reveals a discrepancy in translating the human and divine “mouth,” employing more literal equivalents for the former and less-literal equivalents for the latter, contributing to the characterization of LXX-Numbers as anti-anthropomorphic. The examination of Num 20:24, where a different Vorlage is posited, underscores the importance of meticulous analysis in understanding the Greek translation of anthropomorphisms, and suggests the need for nuanced assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the final decade of the Dutch colonial era, Indonesia witnessed a heated conflict over the relationship between Islam and nationalism. This paper examines several opinions within the Indonesian Islamic movement during the conflict, considering the influence of the Arab Middle East. Around 1930, behind the conflict with secular nationalists, a movement of Islamic groups sympathetic to nationalism emerged, resulting in a fierce debate from the latter half of the 1930s. At the end, those who accepted nationalism while demanding an Islamic movement and an Islamic state became the mainstream position. The rise of Indonesian Islamic nationalism was influenced by the Arab Middle East via Cairo-educated Indonesians and the writings of Arab Middle Eastern intellectuals. However, the acceptance of the influence depended on regional factors. It took some time before those writings became a contentious issue in Indonesia, and Indonesian Muslims selectively utilized the writings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper departs from a deductive premise seeking to apply the theory of "collectivised system of refugee responsibility" to the EU-Egypt migration arrangements. In its basic form, the theory proffers the funding and oversight of the wealthy North to assert protection, and integration of refugees in southern countries. At face value, the design and structure of the EU-Egypt migration arrangements appear to reflect this formula: EU funding in return for Egyptian principled accommodation of refugees. A profounder analysis of these deals, nevertheless, discerns the emergence of an alternative linguistic and legal discourse that priorities security and control over the humanitarian cause. Practice, as well, demonstrates that neither the EU is willing to undertake any refugees' oversight roles, nor Egypt is vying for EU funding. To the contrary, Egypt's generous funding of EU commercial interests and ruthless crackdown on refugees represent Egypt's basic offerings to appease the EU and garner its political support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last book of The Consolation of Philosophy , Boethius develops his solution to the problem of divine foreknowledge and free choice. Interpreters standardly hold that this problem and his solution to it presuppose causal indeterminism. In this paper, I argue that Boethius, following a Neoplatonist view found in Proclus, is a causal determinist and compatibilist and maintains that God's providential knowledge ensures the occurrence of all the events he knows. This alternative interpretation offers a better fit with Boethius's text and its historical antecedents and provides resources to address the main criticisms of his solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to explore the two contradictory debates about the educational philosophy of universities in the context of Ethiopia. It also explores how the understanding of the philosophy of university is shaped by environmental factors and exacerbates the marginalisation of youth. On the one hand, universities are perceived as places where knowledge, that can solve a certain problem. On the other hand, universities are places where knowledge is produced and disseminated irrespective of its immediate use value. This study found out that the understanding of the philosophy of education varies across time and place. In the Ethiopian context, there is neither a disinterested pursuit of knowledge nor the instrumentalist epistemology, nor a synthesis of the two. It disregards the value of knowledge altogether and overly simplified the philosophy of instrumentalist epistemology to extent of buying and selling certificates even in the absence of formal training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes three basic positions that have been held in relation to the place of religious ideas and reasons in public square deliberation by outlining the arguments of major representatives of each position. The three positions are: 'obligatory relegation' (Robert Audi); 'willing translation' (John Rawls and Jürgen Habermas), and 'unreserved declaration' (Nicholas Wolterstorff and Charles Taylor). I conclude by offering an observation from the survey. Even as the question of the place of religious ideas in public square deliberation can be approached from either broader domains of the secularisation/post-secularisation of societies or the essence of liberal democracy, it is not the domain itself but rather specific conceptions of key ideas or notions within each domain that push the representatives to take the position that they do. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new EU Regulation on health technology assessment (HTAR) provides for joint clinical assessments (JCA) of health technologies at EU level. When Member States carry out health technology assessments (HTA) at the national level, they shall give due consideration to the results of a JCA and comply with other obligations of the Regulation. This article aims to clarify what these obligations mean for the Member States and whether JCA results have to be considered outside a national health technology assessment as well. In this context, the question of which processes qualify as 'national HTA' and which requirements need to be fulfilled to trigger the obligations under Article 13 HTAR are discussed in more detail in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces the conceptual origins of Newton's draft scholia to Propositions IV through IX of Book III of the Principia to a manuscript booklet of observational data. By coordinating passages marked by dog-eared pages in Newton's books with his correspondence and working papers, it is possible to date these references to a time when he was still actively working on the Principia itself. This provides the basis for a new interpretation of Newton's uses of Egyptian and Graeco-Roman antiquity to counter rival histories of astronomy and philosophy influenced by Descartes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cooperative breeding system of birds is an ideal model for studying and exploring social evolution in animals. However, a basic question, i.e., how many cooperative-breeding bird species exist in the world, remains controversial due to the lack of accumulated knowledge of the natural history of many birds, which prevents a generalized understanding of the evolution of cooperative breeding in birds and challenges the accuracy of results in many comparative studies. In this paper, we provide the first evidence of cooperative breeding in red-billed blue magpies (Urocissa erythrorhyncha). Moreover, we document and discuss potential relationships between cooperative breeding and nest predation, brood parasitism and breeding performance in U. erythrorhyncha. These findings about cooperative breeding in red-billed blue magpie will lay a foundation for further research on this species' sociality and provide useful insights into the evolution of cooperative breeding and other social systems in birds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Buonomano and Rovelli (unpubl. manuscript, 2021) and Gruber, Block, and Montemayor (Front. Psychol. , 2022 , 13, art. 718505) grapple with the problem that we experience both a present moment and a flow of time, yet neither of those things seems to be recognised in physics. This paper makes three points about that. The present moment in perception is not the same as the present moment in physics because they occupy radically different time scales, 10–44 s in physics and something in the millisecond range in perception. The information about what is currently being perceived is experienced as in the present not because it is but because it is all labelled with time markers saying that it is the present; there are similar time markers identifying still active historical information as in the past. The flow of time is not generated by actual change over time but by an information structure existing at a single moment of time that represents change over connected time markers. Whether there is an actual present and an actual flow of time in the universe or not, the experienced present and experienced flow of time are perceptual constructs and nothing more. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is an invited commentary on the position paper of Gruber, Block and Montemayor (2022). First, I oppose the premise in Gruber et al. 's proposal according to which there exists a 'real' and an 'illusory' time. Second, our knowledge about the universe is hypothesized, tested, and verified by the most complex physical systems known to date (brains) hence postulating the coexistence of an 'absolute' and a 'real', or an 'illusory' and a 'nonillusory' time might be unnecessary. Instead, and parsimoniously, (organic or atomic) measuring devices for duration, simultaneity, order, and so forth, have variable precision. The most exquisite clock is atomic, a good enough one for survival on Earth is at the scale of neural networks. A difference between measuring devices and brains is that the latter compute on stored temporal information. Last, I suggest additional gadgets for the Information Gathering and Utilizing Systems (IGUs) proposal. In sum, I oppose some of the theoretical premises while lending support to the idea that representing temporal statistics is a useful heuristics for some aspects of temporal cognition. From the cognitive neuroscience standpoint, IGUs are compatible with information-theoretic approaches, and with current Bayesian and predictive models implemented in neural systems, in which brains code information and compute on symbolic representations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The commentary discusses whether AI devices can have an experience of time as passing. The papers commented on suggest the answer is "Yes". However, I claim that the metaphysical view of time this answer presupposes, namely, eternalism, or the block universe, is untenable, and that a sound understanding of time must acknowledge time's normative significance. This raises new and substantial questions regarding the possibility of representing time, and of equipping devices with "gadgets" that would facilitate as-of flow experiences for them. More generally, the commentary critically evaluates the role science may have in the context of philosophical debates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his paper 'Bridging the neuroscience and physics of time' with Dean Buonomano (2021) in a forthcoming book Rovelli makes claims that I question because they rely uncritically on theoretical frameworks employed when the laws of thermodynamics and general relativity were discovered. Their reconsideration suggests growth of entropy is not the origin of time's arrow and identifies a notion of universal simultaneity within general relativity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the fact that Sogdian documents found in Dunhuang mainly concerned the Buddhist faith, they preserved important evidence about names and descriptions of deities rooted in the traditional religion of Sogdiana. This was a local form of Zoroastrianism called Xian in Chinese chronicles. Two 8th–9th cc. A.D. Buddhist texts in Sogdian from Dunhuang explicitly associated three Xian deities to Indian counterparts and even described their attributes. This paper discusses one deity not associated with any Sogdian god, namely Vreshman or Vaishramana, the Buddhist guardian (or lokapala) of the north. Sogdians probably identified him with Tish who usually appeared in pre-Islamic Sogdian art together with Nana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper argues for the existence of an ablative-instrumental case in Kushan Bactrian with the endings - α (from original a-stems) and - να ~ - νο (from the Old Iranian pronominal declension). While the corpus is small and many details remain unknown or speculative, there are enough such case forms to show that the Kushan Bactrian case system is more archaic than often thought. It further becomes clear from the examples that the ablative-instrumental case had largely two functions: Several times it is used a prepositional case and, once, to mark the ergative agent of a transitive past tense verb. The existence of an ablative-instrumental in Bactrian as such, its endings and its functions have good parallels in other Middle and New Iranian languages spoken in the region, and should therefore not be too surprising for the Bactrian language of the 2nd century A.D. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses a Sasanian sealstone discovered in 2014 at the archaeological site of Yarim Tepe in Khorasan, northeastern Iran. Although a surface find, the fact that this sealstone is provenanced is significant because this sets it apart from thousands of unprovenanced Sasanian sealstones which, coming from the antiquities market, are held in museums and private collections around the globe. The seal shows a bust in profile and an inscription that arcs above the bust from shoulder to shoulder. Through a stylistic analysis, we date the seal to the 3rd–4th century CE. The article offers a new reading and interpretation of the inscription and argues that the image shows a conventional portrait rather than a specific individual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dargāhqolī Khān, also known as Moʿtaman-al-Dawla Moʿtaman-al-Molk Sālār-J̌ang and Khān-e Dawrān Navāb, was a high-ranking Iranian official at the court of the Neżāms of Hyderabad and Awrangābād for several generations, best known for his description of Delhi. He was descended from Khāndānqolī Khān Δ olqadr, a member of the Bōrbōr sub-tribe who had joined the line of Torkman chiefs in the region of Mašhad and had migrated to India in 1048 A.H./1638 A.D. The paper presents a brief note on the biography of this prominent Indian politician of Iranian descent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will demonstrate that the best descriptor of Qohelet is divine hedonist, not absurdist, skeptic, pessimist, realist, nihilist or "Preacher of Joy." This will be done by examining the relationship between Qohelet's hebel -judgments and his carpe diem ethic and comparing Qohelet's strategy with that of philosopher David Hume. Qohelet's hebel -judgments serve to deconstruct the traditional formulation of the Tun-Ergehen-Zusammenhang , opening space for legitimating his preferred ethic: the carpe diem. In other words, Qohelet rhetorically paints a dark and dreary world in order to buttress his main ethic, the carpe diem, an ethic that is both hedonistic (using philosophical classification) in seeking pleasure and avoiding pain (reflected in his God-fearing motif), and divine in that this ethic must align with God's mysterious decrees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hapax legomenon קֻבָּה , which seems to appear out of context in the account of Phinehas killing an Israelite man and a Midianite woman in Num 25:8, has long puzzled commentators, scholars, and translators. This paper presents a new, text-critical explanation, suggesting that the original text read ויבא אחר איש ישראל וידקר את שניהם את איש ישראל אל הקבה ואת האשה אל קבתה , not including קֻבָּה at all: Phinehas pierced the man אֶל הַקֵּבָה , "through the belly," and the woman אֶל קֳבָתָהּ , "through her belly." The corruption occurred when the words אל הקבה were moved six words back in the text due to homoioteleuton and a partially successful correction. This unintentionally created the extant sentence ויבא אחר איש ישראל אל הקבה , in which קבה must denote a location, not an organ. Rather than קֵבָה , it was therefore read as קֻבָּה. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reconsiders an alleged textual problem raised by the word ξουφηρία in one of Gregory of Nazianzus's letters to Basil (Ep. 4). Contrary to what has been argued by a recent scholar, the text does not need emendation. The problem can be resolved by means of lexicographical analysis: ξουφηρία is merely a spelling variant of ζοφερία ("darkness"). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]